In this case it is not that an image (the famous retouched photo of Catalina) is worth a thousand words, but that its price is a thousand rumors, speculations and conspiracy theories, from the relatively reasonable, although not true (which are has had cosmetic surgery, that her state of health is very precarious, that her marriage is going through problems...) to the most outlandish ones (that she is in a coma, that the person who appears in the photos is her double, that she has been kidnapped by aliens and taken to a remote planet...). After all, there are also those who with all their hearts believe they cross paths with Elvis Presley on the street every day.
But it is what the secrecy of the British royal house and the obsession of its members with privacy has led to in the era of social networks, twenty-four-hour information channels, fake news and an artificial intelligence that with its magic wand It could make Catalina (or whoever) appear or disappear as someone who doesn't want the thing.
What ultimately brought down Richard Nixon was not the nocturnal entry of his plumbers into the offices of the Democratic Party but the lies, and the enemies of the British monarchy have begun to talk (although for the moment it is an exaggeration) about his Watergate particular. Because it was one thing to be as silent as the dead about what type of cancer Carlos III has and his prognosis, and about Catalina's mysterious “successful abdominal intervention,” and another to feed public opinion with manipulated photos. That of the Princess of Wales, according to analysis, is not a simple case of amateur photoshop, but a pastiche of several images clumsily amalgamated into one.
For an institution financed by taxpayers (even though it costs each Briton only one and a half euros a year, less than a coffee in London) and which depends on its credibility to survive, this is a cazzata (Italian blunder) nine and a half points out of ten, an attack on the waterline of the monarchy, on its authenticity, on its prestige, on the trust and respect it inspires among its subjects. A scandal, moreover, that has not required the cunning of an investigative journalist to bring it to light. Who in their right mind, inside the Palace, thought that the triumphant photo of Catalina's return to reality, with her brilliant smile, hugged by her children, without cellulite, without wrinkles, like a supermodel, could be a photographic magic trick without anyone realizing that the sleeves and collars were misaligned, that there were pieces missing here and there, and without creating a mess?
As much as the Waleses present themselves as a privileged but normal family as far as possible, who publishes their family photos on the networks (the one in question was taken by Guillermo with a Canon whose lens included costs five thousand euros), the house Real has an entire public relations apparatus and control of the social accounts of its members who were missing in combat while the image of Catalina (“the Mother's Day scandal”) caused a tsunami whose giant waves have swept away good part of the progress made by the Windsors in recent years: their approach to the public, their modernization, the finally acceptance of the reviled Camilla as queen...
Setbacks such as the death of Elizabeth II (by far the most popular member of the clan), Enrique's abdication as an active member of the family and his voluntary exile in California, accusations of racism over the treatment of Meghan, the schism between the two sons and two daughters-in-law of the king or the sexual scandals of Andrés and his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, had not prevented normalization after the dark years of the divorce of Charles and Diana, and the death in Paris of the “people's princess.” A clear majority of Britons declare themselves monarchists, although the percentage decreases in inverse proportion to age, and young people would prefer a republic.
The problem with Catherine's lie is that it is not just any royal, but the future queen, her pretty face, the one that most often appears on the front pages of newspapers, a matriarchal icon, Diana's heir. And that somehow she herself has broken the spell without needing the twelve bells to ring, distorting an image of which it is no longer known what is real and what is not. Is her face a photocomposition? Is her smile authentic to her? Are those of her children? Could previous photos of her, William, and the other members of the royal family have been doctored? Is her husband even balder than he looks? As in a psychological thriller or a science fiction film, we no longer know what is true and what is mere imagination.
The British monarchist press, which is the vast majority, has come out in defense of Catherine, asking big headlines to leave her alone, with arguments such as that anyone makes a mistake, it's no big deal, it's a storm in your glass. of water, their privacy must be respected, etc. The UK media treats her royals with enormous reverence, and they have them in stitches ever since Diana died in a car accident in Paris and her children blamed the paparazzi. But two and a half months of absence (his last public appearance was at Christmas and there are no photos since he had the operation on January 16, not even at the entrance and exit of the hospital) is becoming an eternity that is increasingly difficult to bear. hold. The discord photo was undoubtedly conceived as an answer to the questions, a way to say that the princess is well and happy. But the shot has backfired spectacularly. Nobody knows what to believe anymore.
The margin of error of the British royal family is small, because they are supported by the so-called “sovereign subsidy”, one hundred million euros annually that it receives from the State to pay salaries, maintain the palaces, official trips and commitments (the price of security , which is up to four times, is entirely borne by the taxpayer), in exchange for the profits of the crown estate (its real estate and land) going to the Treasury. In recent years, however, this subsidy has not been enough and they have closed with a deficit due to the cost of funerals, coronations and palace renovations. The current conservative government has decided to raise Charles III's salary by 25% starting next year, despite the fact that he is one of the richest men in the world (between art, horses, investments and residences such as Balmoral and Sandringham, the Forbes magazine estimated his mother's fortune at around $500 million, and the Sunday Times at around $430 million.
Catalina believed that she could manipulate her family photo, the one of her return to society, like someone who retouches the one on her profile on Facebook, Instagram or Tinder to be more attractive and increase likes. But what she has managed to do is create more doubts and further weaken trust in institutions in general and especially in one, the monarchy, which is supposed to represent the aspirations and ideals of an entire nation. Elizabeth II said that royalty has a lot of fantasy and mystery and “to be credible it has to be seen”, but the truth is that now, among one thing and another, two of its main actors are invisible, William at half throttle, Andrés and Enrique are marginalized, and the burden falls on Camila, 74, who has requested a few days of vacation.
The Windsors, in their winter of discontent, are undermining their credibility pixel by pixel, secret by secret, and becoming a virtual family. A lesson in how to destroy a brand. The subjects demand explanations.
