CHRONICLE – Amidst Kate Middleton’s fake photo and questionable feuds, we wonder who is running the princely palace and, by extension, the hard core of the Windsors.
Is there a pilot on the plane? You probably remember the movie starring Leslie Nielsen, a 1980 absurdist comedy in which the entire crew of Flight 209 suffers from food poisoning, the autopilot is an inflatable pilot, and the air traffic controller throws himself out of the control tower window. Well, we are not so far from the original scenario that Kensington Palace offers us today. Recall that Kensington Palace (French) is the royal home of Prince William and Kate Middleton, and the organization has to manage everything about the news and the privacy of Wales and their children. About fifty people in total (according to an English tabloid A mirror), including their spokespersons, their communicators, secretaries, assistants, security agents… Therefore, a whole good team who could have individually or collectively told them not to publish this photo. (For God’s sake!). But no. This photo, which shows a beaming Kate Middleton sitting on a rattan chair and surrounded by her three children, was sold as the first official photo of the Princess of Wales since her hospitalization on January 16, and was posted on the royal couple’s official Instagram account.
Since then, many netizens and several major international press agencies have come unhinged, claiming that the photo is fake, manipulated, photoshopped. Adding to the concern over Kate Middleton’s health is another stone in the wall of questions built for two months (Why did Kate have the surgery? Why was her recovery extended? Was it more serious than expected? That , initially, more serious than announced…). The question of the day. but why would they suddenly broadcast a doctored photo? It is assumed. though they didn’t let anything leak in the first place, opting for the Company’s preferred crisis communication (silence), and so they had time to do it in what seemed like a proper way. And once they answer us. It’s even Kate herself (she signs “C” for Kathryn on her Instagram story) who responds by apologizing to us as… her poor photo retouching skills.
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Perfect picture
Of course, this answer only raises objections to other questions. We know nothing here of the historic workings of Kensington Palace, starting with the fact that the Princess always answered only through a spokeswoman. We do not recognize strong communication, seriousness is rarely attacked. In January 2020, the palace brilliantly downplayed the impact of Megxit on Kate and William’s popularity. In 2021, rumors of William’s infidelity with one Rose Hanbury, the Marchioness of Cholmondeley, though spread like wildfire in the tabloids, were magically stopped. Even the memoirs of Prince Harry, which were published in January 2023, did not spoil the perfect image of the couple claiming the throne.
Kate Middleton’s various “crises” were masterfully managed by her two successive private secretaries, Catherine Quinn (former director general of the Said Business School, a prestigious business school at the University of Oxford) from 2017 to 2019, and Hannah. Cockburn-Lodge (Former Diplomat at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office) from 2020 to October 2022. For unknown reasons, the latter was replaced until a few days ago. one Tom White, billed as a war hero in Afghanistan and a former runner. Queen Elizabeth II ascended the throne on February 22, 2024. Let’s say… not at the best time. The message, evasive (“scheduled abdominal surgery”), had already been sent. and the anxiety is already there. Did she approve, without giving it time to think, this idea of a princess to post the retouching done by her in good faith? Or did he (wrongly) think that this attempt at anger might distract the British?
It is important to add that the rest of the team probably handles everything else; medical care, if any, at its sole discretion; family arrangements and upheavals in agendas… It is also important to note that Buckingham Palace teams are busy with other issues related to the absence of Charles III, who announced that he will be diagnosed with cancer on February 5. The increasingly absent Queen Camilla is said to be “exhausted” from all her official outings. Prince William may also be helpless in the face of a flood of official commitments that will ricochet at him. Windsor, can you see me?
Source: Le Figaro
