Yesterday, paparazzi photographs of the Princess of Wales and her mother, Carole Middleton, driving in an Audi on the grounds of Windsor Castle were published by TMZ. To read that sentence out of context, it might sound remarkably ordinary: Kate Middleton? In a car? Where she lives?
In reality, the images were anything but. They almost instantly began trending on X and were picked up by tabloids around the world. Even the most respected newspapers—who rarely, if ever, comment on grainy pap shots such as this—weighed in from a straightforward news perspective without running the photos.
The reason for the furor? It’s the first time the Princess has been publicly spotted since December 25, 2023. On January 17, Kensington Palace announced she had undergone a planned abdominal surgery and would be hospitalized for 10 to 14 days. They added that she would return to public duties after Easter.
At first, the statement seemed vague yet straightforward: Kate Middleton was recovering from a serious procedure for the next two months, but would return to work in April. Yet, as the weeks dragged on—and the princess, arguably the most consistently photographed woman in the world remained out of sight—rumors began circulating in conspiratorial corners of the internet.
It all hit a fever pitch in late February. Over the week of February 25, a series of tragic circumstances hit the royal family: first, the sudden death of Thomas Kingston, the husband of royal family member Lady Gabriella. (It was later ruled a suicide.) Then, Prince William unexpectedly pulled out from a memorial service for his godfather, King Constantine of Greece, for what was described as a “personal matter.” All the while, King Charles III was dealing with a cancer diagnosis. While an ordinary family would have usually garnered universal sympathy and privacy, the Windsors—probably the most popular, best-selling tabloid subjects aside from the Kardashians—did not. The internet, especially X, exploded with commentary: What was really going on in the House of Windsor?
A fair amount of these posts were darkly humorous. (Some tweets suggested she’d been sighted at the disastrous Glasgow Willy Wonka experience.) However, many took a more sinister tone, speculating that the Princess was “missing,” and that the royal family was hiding the real reason for her absence from public life.