Princess Kate is taking control, whether the Press like it or not

It was the news we’d all been waiting for – The Princess of Wales had completed her chemotherapy. After her deeply poignant announcement in March that she had been diagnosed with cancer and had started ‘preventative’ chemotherapy treatment, to hear that Kate was now continuing with her recovery and would tentatively return to the royal spotlight, was a welcomed slice of good news.

But, whilst the vast majority of the public reacted with joy and relief that the brightest star in the Royal hemisphere would be shining brightly again, an undercurrent of expected negativity began to raise its ugly head.

It was all to do with a delightful and often moving video showing the Princess alongside her family, with her husband, Prince William and their three children, George, Charlotte, and Louis (whose nickname we now know is ‘Lou-bugs’).

For some on social media and in the mainstream media this three-minute video posted to the couple’s social media pages was so horrifying, so despicable, that they were left horribly outraged.

Headlines from commentators littered the tabloids describing the video as ‘unprecedented’, ‘manipulative’ and ‘contrived’. “Kate’s video leaves me concerned,” wrote one columnist. “We don’t want Kate to turn into Meghan Markle,” wrote another. On and on they went, predicting everything from the Royal Family starting to put social media engagement ahead of the public, to the extreme notion that this is the beginning of the end of the monarchy.

After days of coverage and endless commentary, both praising and critical, most of the public have been left genuinely confused at what on earth was wrong with Kate’s cancer video?

It was beautifully shot by Will Warr (Who the couple have become accustomed to using for their landmark videos. He also shot the couple’s tenth wedding anniversary video and covered the King’s coronation). The description of the Princess’ cancer journey was poignantly delivered with with emotional flare and an undercurrent of stoicism that has become Kate’s go to tone. It was emotive, evocative, relatable and above all else, human. So, it was baffling as to why anyone could find anything wrong with it?

Well, the answer soon became apparent as the columnists began to put pen to paper.

It was both unbecoming of the future Queen to be so open about her experience with cancer and yet the video was also too slick, too refined. Why hadn’t she shown us the warts and all journey cancer puts its victims through? Why didn’t we see Kate with any nurses or doctors? Where was her being tired and vomiting into a toilet bowl? Why didn’t we watch her pull out clumps of her hair as the chemotherapy took hold? The questions were unrelenting and overwhelmingly cruel.

For anyone who has witnessed a loved one go through cancer, or have themselves navigated the often complex and emotionally draining road it can pave; to see someone with the platform the Princess of Wales has present a positive image about life after cancer, was deeply inspiring and will change how we talk about the disease into the future.

But the commentators didn’t see this. Instead, “sources” close to other members of the royal family were more than happy to add their own poison to the onslaught. Briefing the Daily Mail, friends of King Charles and Queen Camilla showered scorn on the Princess over the video because it featured Kate’s parents Mike and Carol Middleton, and ‘left out’ the King and Queen.

“There’s no coincidence that the Middleton’s 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 until hell freezes over. It’s distinctly un-regal,” an insider was claimed to have said.

Another source close to the monarch said: “Why [didn’t kate] not visit other women being treated for cancer? That’s what Diana would have done.”

A final source in another outlet went further saying: “Diana, or Charles would never have done a video like this. The late-Queen would be outraged!”

How ridiculous, but then again there is some truth to the statement. No, Diana and Charles would never have done a video like this. Instead, they spent their marriage shacking up with other partners behind each other’s backs, cosied up to the tabloids to brief against one another, and willingly and relentlessly used their two sons as nothing more than points to be scored in a war of their own making. So how the friends who helped enable the former Prince and Princess of Wales’ behaviour for the best part of ten years, have the audacity to claim that Princess Kate’s video is ‘un-regal’ is simply laughable.

As for the Queen being ‘outraged’, it’s insulting to suggest a beloved monarch who saw her family through some of the most devastating royal scandals of the century, would be anything but proud to see her grandson in a loving, stable marriage with three well rounded children who clearly adore their parents – a family that you could argue mirrored her own when she was young.

It is worth saying that although the King hasn’t publicly commented on the video, he did release a statement through the press saying how proud he was of the Princess and “offered all love, thoughts and support” on her continued path to full recovery. He certainly sounds unhappy, doesn’t he?

The outrage from some elements of the media (let’s ignore the social media trolls who simply pour hate for the sake of being hateful) was nothing to do with Kate’s delightful video, but more so about the level of control she is taking back from Fleet Street.

Let’s not forget, Princess Kate has been in the media game for over twenty years. She knows how it works. For the almost fourteen years she’s been a royal, she has done exactly what the media has expected of her. Perhaps with “a new perspective on everything”, as she so eloquently said in her video, she’s thought, “occasionally I’ll set the rules on how and when I engage with the media”. And if so, then good for her.

After all, the media’s messaging has been mixed at best. Earlier this year, when Princess Kate announced she would be having surgery, the ensuing months of silence from Kensington Palace whilst she recovered was met with disturbing and vile conspiracy theories.

The media happily jumped on board. “Just tell us what’s going on!” They shouted, alongside similar warnings of the end of the monarchy. The media went so far as to ‘kill” a moderately edited photograph released on Mother’s Day of the Princess with her children, because the palace wouldn’t tell them why. In those two months before she told the world of her cancer diagnosis, the Prince and Princess of Wales were being treated like criminals – traitors to the country who you would have thought had sold state secrets to Putin by the way the media was reacting.

And yet, seven months on the Princess of Wales releases a video explaining in detail what she’s endured – and the same people who criticised her for keeping us out, are the ones criticising her again for letting us in. She simply can’t win.

At the end of her video, Kate says: “To all those who are continuing their own cancer journey – I remain with you, side by side, hand in hand. Out of darkness, can come light so let that light shine bright.” After the insanity that has surrounded this woman, and the incessant desperation to see her stumble at every turn, I hope she heeds her own words. So that when she steps back into the light and shines brighter than ever before – she does so on her own terms.