Last week, in the middle of the Princess of Wales’s Mother’s Day photo fiasco, a Daily Mail columnist started making sense. The columnist was Liz Jones and she wrote several scathing pieces about how Kensington Palace is probably lying about everything and Prince William was “ungentlemanly” for shoving Kate under the bus to protect himself from the photo fallout. It was great! Well, Liz Jones has a new column and it’s in the same vein. Other people have caught up to it too – this weekend’s “sighting” of Kate at a Windsor garden store is yet another weird moment in a series of very weird moments. Now Jones and her ilk are publicly begging Huevo and Buttons to get their acts together. (Note: Liz Jones wrote this before the garden shop video was published.)

Kate still hasn’t been photographed: “We are informed that William and Catherine were spotted at the Windsor farm shop on Saturday and the next day went to watch their children play sport. Yet, in this age of smart phones, no one – just no one – took a photo. I was on the phone to three girlfriends yesterday when we heard the rumour that a big announcement was impending. We were terrified. In tears. To then hear, a few hours later, that the Royal couple had been spotted out relaxing was like a kick in the teeth. We felt foolish. And we’re still not convinced. In fact, we feel royally shafted. If the Royal Family is all about respect, about doing the right thing, I for one feel completely disrespected. Have we spent all these days worried sick for nothing?”

The Kate speculation is not bullying: I am tired of commentators saying that all this speculation is bullying or mere time wasting. One Sunday paper tried to dismiss the online concern for Kate as ‘prurient’, a cruel theatre, both ‘degrading and infantilising’. Really? I agree with Earl Spencer when he said that the attention focused on his sister Diana was far more dangerous than the current online scrutiny of Kate. The fact is that we play detective because we care. So, stop trying to downplay the doctored Mother’s Day photo. A source close to the Waleses has been quoted saying that Kate’s not a ‘show pony’. But, in the nicest possible way, that’s EXACTLY what she is. Ninety-nine point nine percent of us will only ever know the Princess of Wales through the lens of a camera. The late Queen once said that monarchy must be seen to be believed. Now? We don’t believe what we are seeing.

Image is everything: If she wants to be ‘amateur’ about her pictures, as she put it, then she’s in the wrong job. Because Kate matters. She could be Queen in a few short years. As long as she’s okay, we’re okay. We need her to be stable, happy, smiling in a world that is very far from that. And we need her to accept that a portrait of a film star or model in a magazine – possibly ‘tweaked’ – is completely different to an eagerly awaited news photograph. Reputable picture agencies cannot be party to any distortion in this age of artificial intelligence. Most newspaper reports and television bulletins are still patting us on the head as if we’re children, acting as if everything is going to plan.

The phone calls of support: One stated that the palace phones have been ‘ringing off the hook’ with good wishes from the public. I don’t believe that for one second. Who rings a landline these days when they can post online?

The solutions: The solution to all this speculation and ridicule is simple: don’t ignore us, as the Prince of Wales did when he arrived for his Earthshot speech on Thursday evening. When a reporter called out, ‘William, how’s Catherine? there was no acknowledgement at all, which just seemed clumsy, given the furore. William: we understand you want to protect your family, to have a private bubble. But Earthshot was a public moment. Why not smile and say she’s doing fine? Oh, and don’t take four weeks off over Easter leaving others to hold the fort. Kate: be seen smiling and waving for a few seconds. King Charles is doing it, valiantly, although he looks pasty. Hiding away makes a mockery of all your mental health initiatives, about how important it is to be open. The world is waiting, with bated breath. Yet no one can produce a photo from that farm shop trip, not even a blurry profile.

[From The Daily Mail]

Before the Mother’s Day photo furor, I was on the conspiracy bandwagon that the only reason they hadn’t released a photo of Kate is because they couldn’t – either she wasn’t conscious or she was in such a poor state, they didn’t want any lens on her. But now? After the events of the past two weeks? I think a huge part of what’s happening is stubbornness and arrogance on William and Kate’s part. Like, I still believe that some weird sh-t had happened in the past three months and we probably don’t know the half of it. But all of the media-management part of this, the communications part of it, is just a reflection of William and Kate’s arrogance, stupidity and incompetence, and their inability to hire effective, capable people to help them. What’s incredible is that people are starting to notice too. When the Mail is running multiple pieces calling them out, you know something has shifted in a big way.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.