LONDON The real news about Kate’s photograph? «That ring finger without rings. The princess is about to get divorced and she wanted to make it known like this.” Why doesn’t Kensington Palace release the original of the retouched photo? «Because it doesn’t exist. It’s a collage. The image of Kate’s face was apparently copied from a report created for Vogue magazine months ago.”
If there are those who ask for clemency towards a still convalescent princess – in particular the Sun tabloid – the case that broke out around the portrait of the perfect family and released on the occasion of Mother’s Day on Sunday shows no signs of dying down: the most bizarre theories — accompanied by thousands of memes on social media — continue to pique the interest of subjects. If on the one hand there is still concern and affection for a king suffering from cancer, a 76-year-old queen forced to hold the reins of the clan in her hands, an heir to the throne who divides his time between official commitments, his wife and young children, the dismay in the face of Sunday’s operation it is undeniable.
Generally paying little attention to the vicissitudes of the royals, even the Financial Times was forced to cover the story: «The photograph was intended to reassure the public about the health conditions of the Princess of Wales. He achieved the opposite”, wrote the newspaper quoting the opinion of Clive Irving, journalist and biographer of Queen Elizabeth: “With the announcement of Charles’ illness and Kate’s problems it was believed we were entering an era of greater transparency , while this is not the case.” It is still not known what type of cancer the king is suffering from, nor what Catherine of Wales’ health problems really are. «She is an example of one step forward towards the light and another immediately back».
The princess, say sources close to her, would be “sad and sorry” to have caused a further headache for the royals: in reality, the fault is not so much hers as that of an entourage who was unable to avoid a misstep. If it really was her, as she herself said in a statement released on social media, who took the photo, why didn’t her press officers understand that the first official image released since Christmas Day, the first after the operation, would it have been examined in detail?
For Simon Lewis, wanted by Elizabeth after Diana’s death to raise the reputation of the sovereign and the royal family, it is probable that the error occurred because the team around the princes of Wales is new: it is however «a problem not indifferent”, which affects the credibility of the Windsors and the way in which they choose to make themselves known in the country and in the rest of the world. «What is true and what is not?». Trust is the basis of every brand and «Windsors are a global brand». «Let’s imagine what would have happened if it had been Meghan or Joe Biden who had circulated a photo retouched in the same way – underlined David Yelland, former editor of the Sun, now a star of public relations. It would have been a disaster for both of us.” It is more than likely that, for Kate, the dust will settle and that we will return to respecting the privacy of a woman who, after all, is also the mother of three children who are certainly affected by her health problems.
Meanwhile, it seems that the Dukes of Sussex, experts in media storms, have sent several messages of support to William and his wife, but perhaps this too is just an inference that finds substance in a moment suspended between truth and fake news.