Many of us were surprised by the timeline laid out for the Princess of Wales’s recovery from her mysterious abdominal surgery. Kensington Palace announcement, which made no mention of a hopeful “full recovery” for Kate, said that Kate would need 10-14 days in the hospital, and then she would recuperate at Adelaide Cottage through Easter. Easter is March 31st. It didn’t even occur to me, but Easter Sunday is generally the only time we see Kate and William for a month – Easter falls during their kids’ school break, and y’all know that William and Kate believe that they can never, ever work during their kids’ twenty weeks of school holidays. All of which means that Kensington Palace just quietly added several more weeks of “convalescence” to Kate’s schedule – now they’re saying that it will likely be weeks after Easter before Kate is seen, because of the kids’ school holiday. It could be May before we see Kate, basically. Some highlights from this Telegraph piece:

Kate is irreplaceable, but not because of her workload: She is, quite simply, irreplaceable. This is not down to her volume of work. Neither she nor the Prince of Wales go in for the relentless daily schedules of his older relatives. Rarely is a ribbon cut or a plaque unveiled on their watch. Instead, she has carved out a unique space in the royal landscape. After finding her passion for early years, she has tailored most of her working life around her mission to change life for the next generation. A glance at the court circular shows a stream of early years engagements and early years meetings, broken up with a visit to highlight mental health and communities here, or supporting the King in his duties there.

No one can step into Kate’s shoes: The Princess’s months-long absence will not see anyone stepping in to fill her shoes to help out. Other members of the family will not be turning up to long-planned engagements about early years. Well-intentioned as it would be, the Princess’s projects are designed around her own expertise and convening power. “The way she has designed and built the early years project means the work can and will continue in the background while she is out of the office,” a source said. When absent, the Princess “can actively follow it from home”.

Back with a bang, well after Easter: The plan, said a source, is for the Princess to be “back with a bang” as soon as is feasible. It is estimated that she will not return to work before Easter, which is on March 31, with the Wales children’s school holidays – usually blocked off in the family diary – extending for a few weeks after that.

She won’t miss Trooping in June: She will miss the Bafta ceremony on February 18, short planned tours to Latvia and Italy, and some day-to-day engagements. There is no sign yet that she will not be fighting fit for Trooping the Colour in June and its customary balcony appearance, after taking the salute at the Colonel’s Review for the first time as Regimental Colonel of the Irish Guards.

[From The Telegraph]

It hasn’t even been a week and they’re soft-launching “actually, Kate won’t be seen until late April, early May at the earliest.” I mean, what the hell is really going on? A question without an answer at this moment. As for “the Princess’s projects are designed around her own expertise and convening power” – it’s a very fancy way of saying that Kate’s schedule is mostly unimportant busywork and word salad speeches that don’t amount to much. Kate’s Early Years “events” are, for the most part, carefully constructed, zero-impact pieces of theater, staged for the tabloids. This is going to be interesting to watch, because after an absence of five months, it will be curious to see if anyone acknowledges that many of Kate’s appearances could have been a three-sentence email. I truly hope she’s okay, and that when she makes a full recovery, she starts focusing on substantive work.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.