As we’ve discussed throughout the week, the British media’s reaction to Prince William and Kate’s “cancer free” video has been critical and skeptical. Kate’s message about the end of her chemotherapy was accepted at face value, but the video broke something in even the most sugary of royalists. The Mail, the Evening Standard, the Guardian and more have all run negative commentary pieces about the video feeling cringey, cliched and gruesome. The press is also worried that this will become Will and Kate’s new normal. Well, I’m ashamed to admit that it didn’t occur to me that this criticism and skepticism was being authorized by Buckingham Palace. I clocked the fact that Buckingham Palace or “sources close to the king” had not spoken off the record, positively or negatively, about the video. But it didn’t occur to me that Team Charles and Team Camilla were quietly letting the Keens twist in the wind all week. Of course, Charles and Camilla couldn’t help but sign their work in the end. From Richard Eden’s latest Daily Mail column:

Everyone close to the Royal Family is delighted that the Princess of Wales has completed her chemotherapy treatment and hopeful that she remains in remission from an unnamed form of cancer. But the super-slick video that Kensington Palace released on Monday to broadcast the welcome update on her health has divided opinion among courtiers – and provoked scathing backlash from some friends of King Charles and Queen Camilla.

Their Majesties haven’t yet commented on the extraordinary three-minute film – made by Will Warr, who earns most of his money from shooting advertising campaigns for companies including supermarket giant Tesco and delivery service Uber Eats…But the highly-stylised video certainly laid bare how radically different Prince William and Catherine’s approach to communications has become from the more traditional methods favoured by the King and Queen, and Queen Elizabeth before them.

Notably, while Catherine’s parents, Michael and Carole Middleton, are shown playing cards with their grandchildren at what appears to be Anmer Hall, the Prince and Princess’s home on the King’s Sandringham estate, King Charles and Queen Camilla are nowhere to be seen in the video.

Some of the monarch’s friends are critical. One told me: ‘There’s no coincidence that the Middletons appear in it and not the King and Queen. I can assure you that Charles and Camilla will not be filmed kissing each other on a beach [as William and Catherine were] until hell freezes over. It’s distinctly un-regal.’

I spoke to another insider who was even more scathing.

‘All that lying round, hugging and kissing – they’re not soppy teenagers,’ they said. ‘It felt manipulative. It’s the sort of thing that Meghan would make. All the time, effort and expense put into making the video could have been much better spent elsewhere. Why not visit other women being treated for cancer? That’s what Diana would have done.’

Even though I think the latest video is very sweet… William and Catherine don’t need to be ‘Instagram royals’, hungry for ‘likes’ and ‘engagement’ online. They should follow the example of Queen Elizabeth. The late Queen was always keen to keep up to date with the latest technology but, at the same time, maintain the dignity of the Monarchy.

A Kensington Palace spokesman declined to comment on why the Middletons featured in the video but not Their Majesties.

[From The Daily Mail]

It also goes back to my question about why Kate released that tree photo and lengthy statement ahead of Trooping the Colour, because it felt like Kate was making Trooping all about her and ensuring that she was the only story. The same thing here – she was centering herself and trying to convince everyone of her solid marriage (as opposed to sticking with a simple, concise “cancer free” narrative). Nowadays, it looks like Charles and Camilla are absolutely sick of her sh-t. I still believe that Charles stepped in, back in March, and basically rescued William and Kate’s from whatever catastrophe they had gotten into and couldn’t manage their way out of. Cover stories were brainstormed, new people were brought in, narratives were orchestrated and Charles likely hoped that Peg and Buttons could stick with the program for six full months. They could not. Now, is this Charles washing his hands of them? Probably not, but he’s clearly furious at their constant stupidity, vapidity and short-sightedness. “All the time, effort and expense put into making the video could have been much better spent elsewhere. Why not visit other women being treated for cancer? That’s what Diana would have done.” And I oop–

Photos courtesy of Will Warr/Kensington Palace and PA Images/INSTARimages.