Credibility is hard to gain and very easy to lose, and that is what is happening to Kate Middleton. Between the secrecy surrounding her abdominal operation, the doctored photo of her and her absence from official events since she underwent surgery on January 17, the British no longer know what is false and what is true.
An amateur video taken on Saturday in a farm shop near Windsor, in which the Princess of Wales is supposedly seen, relaxed and smiling (and very thin) with her husband, has not served to clear up doubts about what is happening to her. . Kensington Palace has refused to comment on her, and conspiracy theories say that it is not her, but a double designed with the help of artificial intelligence, and that she is being trained to replace her.
To the speculation that he has cancer, or depression, or has had cosmetic surgery, has been added that of a serious marital crisis due to William's alleged affair with Lady Rose Hanbury, Marchioness of Cholmondeley, mother of three children, one aristocrat married to a man twenty-something years older than her, who moves in the circles of the Windsor court and who was invited to the coronation of Charles III. Her lawyers issued a statement on Tuesday denying that it was true. Rumors about it began to circulate in 2019 and have now exploded on social networks (and abroad), although this does not necessarily mean that they are true.
A much more realistic theory, according to doctors and nurses, is that the princess has undergone surgery for suffering from a disease, such as Crohn's, which causes serious intestinal disorders and weight loss, and is very uncomfortable. Palacio insists that he is recovering well, he will not give medical reports and his return to public life will not occur until after Easter (he has neither confirmed nor denied that he will do so on Easter Sunday on the occasion of a mass he attends. traditionally the entire royal family).
Another blow to the Windsors' credibility is the review by the Getty Images agency of a photo taken weeks before the death of Elizabeth II, in which she appears with her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and which would also have been slightly retouched.
In the United Kingdom, rumors about William's affair or Kate's health are limited to social networks, and the written press does not pick them up, or only in a cryptic way. Most of the media is very royalist and this Tuesday they used Kate's (or her doppelganger's) video of her to call for an end to the speculation and welcome her return to the world of the living.
