2024 has not been a great year so far for the British Royal Family. The major news, of course, is that King Charles III has been diagnosed with cancer. Precisely what kind of cancer is still unknown, with Buckingham Palace only confirming that “His Majesty does not have prostate cancer.” Beyond that, Kate Middleton, the Princess of Wales and future Queen Consort, has vanished after undergoing “abdominal surgery” in January.
Middleton has lived her life very much in the public eye since she began dating Prince William, whether through official appearances or under the relentless gaze of the British paparazzi, so the fact that there have been no photographs of her since Christmas Day 2024 is unusual. In early February there was even a story in a Spanish newspaper that Kate is in a medically induced coma.
As of writing, it’s been 65 days since anyone has seen her. So, what’s going on?
The official story
On Jan. 17, 2024, Kensington Palace announced that Middleton had undergone “planned abdominal surgery” at the London Clinic and that she would need to recuperate at home. The press release said:
“The Princess of Wales appreciates the interest this statement will generate. She hopes that the public will understand her desire to maintain as much normality for her children as possible; and her wish that her personal medical information remains private.”
As of Feb. 9, Middleton has been taken to Anmer Hall, on the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk, where she is convalescing. Further details are unknown, save for a confirmation that her operation was not linked to cancer. The Palace has not been at all forthcoming with information, save to vaguely say that she’s “doing well”. Meanwhile, William has pulled out at the last minute from speaking at his godfather’s memorial service, raising eyebrows.
This relative absence of information has created a vacuum, and there’s been some interesting speculation based on reading between the lines and figuring out what may have really happened.
The speculation
As detailed in a comprehensive Reddit post, there’s a lot that doesn’t add up about this story. For one, though the Royal Family claims this was a scheduled operation, Middleton had events in her diary planned for the following weeks, indicating that either the operation wasn’t scheduled (or was at the last minute) or that a much more rapid recovery was expected.
The complete absence of any photographs of her since Christmas is also a red flag. King Charles was in the same hospital at the same time and was pictured by the press both arriving and leaving. Why didn’t Middleton receive the same treatment? It’s also worth noting that Middleton posed for pictures soon after giving birth to each of her children, so she’s not necessarily averse to being seen after medical treatment.
On the same topic, we haven’t seen even a blurry long-lens photo of Middleton as she’s being transported between the London Clinic and Sandringham. These photos are worth a lot of money to the tabloid press, and the paparazzi are so invasive that it’s hard to believe one hasn’t been taken, so why haven’t any been published? While we’re discussing the press, on Jan. 24, The Daily Mirror published an article critical of Middleton only to edit it to make it about Prince Harry with no explanation as to why:
The theories
First up, Kate Middleton’s medical condition is her own business and we do not have a right to ever know what this operation was for. That said, the length of Middleton’s hospital stay has led medical practitioners to note that there are very few operations that would require such a lengthy recovery time and her being kept as an in-patient for an extended period may indicate that she’s either suffering from something far more serious than has been publicly hinted at, that something went wrong during the operation, or she’s potentially suffering from sepsis or post-op complications.
Alternatively, the procedure may have been for something considered embarrassing, like a procedure on her bowel. If this is the case, and she’s been left with a colostomy while she recovers, we can understand why she wouldn’t want to make a public appearance and why the Royal Family would want to make an agreement with the British press that in this one instance they respect her privacy.
We cannot know for sure, and this lack of information has been filled by unsubstantiated theories that Kate is recovering from a violent attack from Prince William, that she committed an act of self-harm, that she’s undergone a procedure that radically alters her appearance, or even that she’s dead and the Royal Family is training a lookalike to take her place.
The fact that Prince William is out and about cracking jokes with Tom Cruise indicates that nothing quite that dramatic has happened, though only her next public appearance will truly squash these theories. In the meantime, whatever she’s going through, we hope she recovers quickly and that we’ll one day learn the real story about what’s going on behind closed doors on the Royal estate.