The Princess of Wales‘ health has been addressed in a new update from Kensington Palace this week, but one royal expert has urged the family to “come clean” and tell the British public exactly what is wrong with Kate.
In a new statement released last night (February 29), Kensington Palace responded to wild conspiracy theories about why Kate has been “missing” from the spotlight for so long.
However, royal author Duncan Larcombe has slammed the statement. He’s exclusively told Entertainment Daily that he thinks it’s a “bizarre” turn of events – and that Kensington Palace most likely had its hand “forced by the huge levels of speculation about Kate”.
Kensington Palace issues new statement about Princess of Wales’ health
In the statement, a Kensington Palace rep assured royal fans that Kate is “doing well“.
It also addressed speculation about her time out of the spotlight. It said: “We were very clear from the outset that the Princess of Wales was out until after Easter and Kensington Palace would only be providing updates when something was significant.”
The issue will be when Easter comes and goes and she’s still not back.
Now Duncan has told ED!: “It was only short but it’s bizarre really. When it comes to statements from the Palace involving what they would consider to be private matters, especially on health, releasing a statement is their last resort.
“They don’t want to have to release any statements about anything personal or private. So the very fact that they’ve released that points to their hand being forced by the huge levels of speculation about Kate and about William’s mysterious pulling out of the memorial service this week.
“I think they probably had to do something because some of the speculation was pretty wild,” he said.
‘Shirty’ clap back
Duncan also chipped in on the tone of the statement. “It was quite shirty for the Palace. Again, it’s almost them trying to reassert themselves. It’s them saying there really isn’t anything in these rumours. It really is business as usual. We’re sticking to the plan. I think you can almost sense some frustration in the way it was written. Almost like, why do you not believe us?”
Duncan added that Kate is supposed to be back to work after Easter. “That’s always been the plan,” he confirmed. However, he added: “The issue will be when Easter comes and goes and she’s still not back, if that were to happen.”
Speaking about Prince William’s absence from his godfather’s memorial service this week, Duncan said: “I don’t think anybody knows what his personal matter was.”
Prince William is ‘incredibly private’
He then added: “When it comes to certain things, William is an incredibly private person. He shares the bare minimum that he has to. It’s nothing to do with Kate but he’s not saying what it is. It is all a bit of a royal mystery, really.”
He continued: “You do sometimes question the logic of the Palace. They would’ve probably been wise to give a reason as to why William pulled out.”
However, the reason they didn’t, Duncan thinks, is because if they did it once, they would be giving out statements pretty much constantly.
“With William, it could’ve been something completely innocuous. It might have been Prince George fell over and cut his knee at school and needed to be picked up. But their fear, and why they’re always on guard, is they’d then have to comment on all the things that happen when they really don’t want to.
“That’s why the statement from them yesterday really was very unusual. They wouldn’t want to release it but they probably had to because of the wild speculation.”
Duncan also thinks that William and Kate would’ve been kept informed of the speculation on social media. “I think it will be monitored by aides then reported to them. They’ll be well aware of it, they won’t be kept in the dark,” he said.
Princess of Wales and King Charles’ ill health ‘double whammy’ for family
Reflecting on King Charles‘ health issues, Duncan told ED! that it’s been a “double whammy that has had a cumulative effect” for the royal family.
“It’s been a difficult one. You’ve got the King who’s got cancer but they won’t tell us what type of cancer. And they won’t really therefore give us any notion of how serious it is or not.
“Now you’ve got Kate ill as well with abdominal surgery. But there’s been no explanation about why she had to spend two weeks in hospital, which is a hell of a long time by surgical standards these days, and needing such a long period of convalescence, too. Three months, that’s not minor surgery, something major has obviously happened with Kate and it’s glaringly obvious,” he claimed.
“What is the big secret? These secretive, dismissive statements from the Palace only fuel the speculation, some of it wild, on social media. I think the Palace would’ve been far better off just coming clean.”
Read more: King Charles ‘understands family comes first’ for Prince William amid Princess of Wales’ ill health
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