So, the palace decided to let the princess address her medical issue privately, while concerned members of the public focus their attention on the king’s recovery. And now that he’s having appropriate treatment, concerned members of the public can re-direct their focus on the princess.
Not a doctor, just a patient, and this might not apply. In my experience, some types of medical analyses will show certain biological indicators are higher and point to the potential for the presence of cancer, though the presence would not have been actually observed. For example, Prostate Specific Antigen numbers might be elevated or really high, and as a result, chemotherapy would be prescribed to address the possible presence of prostate cancer and bring down those PSA levels. In this way, I would consider the chemo as preventative, if in reality cancer is not present, despite the initially high PSA levels. The result of the chemo is that the PSA levels come down and cancer thereby avoided.
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Sorry, I know your reply was serious but I just can’t see that typo and not giggle at it a little bit.
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If you had read the article, she points out that the surgery results showed the presence of cancer. It’s not a ‘what if’.
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First, as adult members of the Royal Family who have not in any way distanced themselves or abdicated their social responsibilities and societal privileges which such a position granted them, they are consenting representatives of the nation and the society they “rule”.
Second, while the Royal Family is not the government, they are intimately bound with it and share similar social responsibilities to the people of that nation, people who have some small right to know about any issue which may affect it, and therefore, them.
Third, there is a distinct difference between ‘privacy’ and ‘secrecy’ (a deliberate, and active response, once privacy has gone out the window). Having grown up in a small town with an active grapevine, I agree with Poor Richard’s Almanack - “Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.” It was naive for anyone to assume they could successfully keep a health threat to a member of the Royal Family a secret, and by not recognizing that and controlling the narrative, they have made the issue far more controversial than it needs to have been. The fault may not personally be theirs, but it definitely lies on the Royal Family’s public relations team, who should have done better. This was not a private decision made by a pair of traumatized parents - it was them while being advised by a team of professionals whose job it was to present it in the best, most graceful light - a team who failed dramatically.
It’s a horrible situation, but given the way it went down, I have seen no response to it (including both yours AND mine) that is unjustifiable or unforeseeable. It’s just unfortunate. My whole argument was that the blame for this mess most probably lies with the handlers, not with the victim.
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Oh, I totally forgot that those very young children are probably already at boarding schools:
The insider added: “They wanted to wait to tell the world the news until their children were off school for the Easter break so they could have time to process the news before the whole world was talking about it.
So they have to wait until they’re actually with their parents to get the news.
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Oh, by the way, on one of my news podcasts, they had a short audio from a YT ‘influencer’ from the UK who got Carlsons’s team to invite them for a long exclusive interview, feigning they were working for the royals. As proof, they produced spoofed contracts (including obvious bullshit, like a clause which explicitly mentioned amputation of limbs on ending the contract and such). Sadly, they went public before that fucker broadcasted their exclusive interview…
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So, nothing is off the table? I don’t buy that. There is plenty of shit we can lay at the feet of the monarchy without descending to bullshit like dehumanizing invasions of privacy and distracting conspiracy theories. There is a reason after all why “the firm” has constantly sought to feed the tabloids gossipy shit, and that’s to distract us all from the REAL problems caused by the British class system: because gossipy tabloid shit (like WHAT’S GOING ON WITH PRINCESS KATE1!111!!! omg!!!) distracts from what we SHOULD be focused on.
And of course, again, women bear the brunt of this kind of shit, too, in that women’s privacy tend to be the first to go when the “public” decides that they need to know EVERYTHING, OMG…
Do they though? Even if they do, does knowing their private medial details help do… whatever it is… that they do as monarchs? Would YOU understand the inner workings of government if you knew about the results of Rishi Sunak’s last colonoscopy? Do you (or the British public) NEED that information in order to understand what’s happening on the floor of parliament, or would that information be a distraction from the running of government?
And how was this “secrecy” with regards of the decision NOT to share a medical diagnosis of someone who does not sit on the throne currently and will not be THE monarch in the future?
So, the existence of bullshit tabloids who love to get gossip means that it’s okay? Come on now… we know it’s not…
You know that because?
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What a weird and gross set of expectations for any society to have for its public figures, royal or otherwise. How exactly does the princess’ personal medical status impact the day-to-day lives of the UK’s citizens?
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No, I was responding to a specific question, the one about whether there might be such a thing as preventative chemotherapy✌️. Without typing a thesis-length comment to explain all of the interrelated facts, I simply provided an example of preventative chemo from my own experience. In her case, maybe it will prevent it from spreading?
Exactly. I think we can hold in our heads at the same time that the royals are people and should be entitled to certain rights (such as personal privacy) and still understand them as public figures, who live on the largess of the British public, and should be held accountable for anything that is problematic (like, you know, the recent scandals about land/finances). The obsession their sex lives and other things like that (with the exception of Prince Andrew, since, he probably committed a serious crime in his association with Epstein), are a distraction from the real problem with a monarchy!
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Kate has my full sympathy and I hope that she gets well soon but…
This is just plain strange. For any other person in the public eye, they would have announced that they had cancer and got on with it, with our support.
For the particularly strange class of public employee that is the Royal Family, as far as I understand it, the story goes like this:
- Kate is unwell but refuses to use the NHS and goes to a magic fairy expensive private hospital that only the royals and really really rich people are allowed to use.
- UK press: there’s nothing to see here but perhaps she can cheer Charles up while he’s there.
- No, there’s nothing wrong with Kate.
- Really, there’s nothing wrong with Kate.
- Really, there’s no reason why William avoided his godfather’s funeral.
- Why are you all talking about these rumours. Here’s a happy family photo.
- What do you mean the photo doesn’t look right! Of course it does.
- Kate, please explain what went wrong with the photo.
- Kate, please explain why you have cancer.
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I hope she recovers, but I still don’t give 2 farts about the British monarchy.
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Why should they have to?
Chadwick Boseman kept his cancer diagnosis a secret from the public for four years because he wanted to keep working and living his life on his own terms.
It should be up to the individual whether they want to involve the public in something so personal, regardless of whether the public is likely to be “supportive” ir not.
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Agreed, but the UK press is something ‘special’: they will often threaten to leak the news and force an exclusive story. Most therefore chose to break the story themselves.
In this case, they seem to have tried to bribe nursing staff to access Kate’s file: scum.
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But you are assuming that the PR team was behind suppressing information about her health. For all we know, her PR team could have told her to make a statement but she and her husband overruled the advice. We really don’t know what happened behind the scenes. I do believe that they were extremely worried about their children. My father never told me or my older siblings that his cancer was terminal, and I was the 17 when he died. Parents are almost always protective of their children.
I’m not British so I have no stake in this (meaning I care less than zero about the monarchy), but I can certainly empathize with this woman’s struggle for privacy in what surely is a scary situation for her.
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Would they? Not all do. Why is it any of the public’s business? Is her having cancer some threat to national security, or something that the public NEEDS to know?
An excellent example! Was he wrong for doing so?
That doesn’t mean that public SHOULD know about her health. Shouldn’t that be up to her and the family?
And yes, we have shitty tabloids here, too…
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Couldn’t agree more.
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This could be the whole reason behind the silence. Kate and whats-his-name were not going to lannounce she had cancer until they would be able to tell their children it isn’t going to kill their mother
They may have waited until the testing came back and they knew exactly how bad, or not too bad, it was. Imagine if they’d announced it a month ago. Tabloids all over going nuts with all caps headlines about princess dying and all kinds of ghoulish speculation. The kids would find out and their parents would not be able to honestly say it was nonsense and mommy would be ok. That would be traumatic for the kids
Also, it really is none of our fucking business. Yeah, she’s a public figure. Yeah, she married into a family whose wealth was built on colonial exploitation and continues to take money from UK taxes. Still not our business.
Edits. Typing is hard and I’m too tired for this.
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Something that William has been through before, of course.
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