Princess of Wales, Catherine Middleton has been a trending topic with national news coverage. 

It started when Kensington Palace announced in January 2024 that Kate was going into a planned abdominal surgery and would not be returning to the public eye until Easter. The official Palace’s X account stated, “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.” 

While the desire for privacy wouldn’t usually be out of the ordinary, it is for the royal family. At the same time Kate was hospitalized, King Charles III was also hospitalized for an enlarged prostate and was going through treatment. He was then diagnosed with cancer not even a month later. This information about King Charles III was released to the public in January. 

With the lack of information about Princess Kate’s surgery, speculations and rumors started to arise. Few spottings of Kate were available until she posted a picture for Mother’s Day with her kids. The rumors only got worse after news agencies refused to publish the picture due to the severe manipulation. After closer inspection, the picture not only had faulty editing but also a perfect overlay of Kate Middleton’s 2016 Vogue Magazine cover picture over her face. After the picture had the press buzzing Kate Middleton made a statement on X. She said, “Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing. I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused.”

Since the picture, Kate has been spotted grocery shopping with William as of two days ago. It is said that Kate will talk about her surgery when coming back to her duties after Easter. This has not been satisfying to the people though. In recent news staff members from the hospital where Kate received her surgery had tried illegally accessing Kate’s medical records. The investigation is still ongoing.