FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT
LONDON — The magical house of cards of the British monarchy is coming down: the credibility of the royal house is in pieces and attempts to put the pieces back together are causing more harm than good. Yesterday it was Princess Kate herself who admitted that she was the one who crudely retouched the first official photo of her, together with her children, after the surgery she underwent in January. The snapshot, apparently taken by Prince William, had been released by Kensington Palace on Sunday morning on the occasion of English Mother’s Day: but in the late evening the international press agencies had withdrawn it, after they realized that the image was clearly altered.
A tremendous blow to the royals’ credibility, considering all the speculation about Kate’s true state of health: but now she is the one who has taken the blame, stating that «like many amateur photographers, I occasionally experiment with editing. I want to express my apologies for any confusion that the family photo, shared yesterday, has caused.” Palace sources stressed that it was “an amateur photo taken by Prince William” and that the royal couple wanted to offer an “informal” image, to which only “minor adjustments” were made.
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But it is extraordinary that a princess is forced to apologize publicly: whether it was she or someone else who altered the photo, the fact remains that the discovery has given new life to all the conspiracy theories about the conditions of the princess, who had no longer appeared in public after the operation on January 16th and whose state of health has been kept jealously confidential for two months now. And perhaps in an attempt to put another patch on a situation that is getting out of hand, yesterday afternoon Kate was photographed in the car next to William, heading from Windsor to London to take part in the commemoration of the Commonwealth: the princess, it was learned , was instead going to a private appointment, probably also in London.
She and her husband could not have failed to know that they would be filmed, so it is likely that the release was planned on purpose to somehow show the princess after the debacle of the fake photo: in fact in January it was announced that Kate would not resume her commitments public at least until after Easter.
But monarchy is a great illusion, and this illusion is based on trust: who or what should the subjects believe now? The final episode of the TV series “The Crown” was prophetic: there Prince Philip said that the royals, after Elizabeth’s death, would go on pretending that everything was fine, but that in reality “the party is over”, because “the system no longer makes any sense for those outside or inside”. And now, with King Charles ill with cancer, Kate out of action and the truth increasingly blurred, the illusion is fading.
It’s easy to imagine how Republican groups will catch their breath at this point. Already after Elizabeth’s departure, the level of approval for the monarchy had dropped to 60%: and according to the republicans, if approval were to drop below 50%, the question of maintaining the monarchical institution would inevitably end up arising.
Elizabeth said that the monarchy must be seen to be believed: but now, in the era of Artificial Intelligence and deep fakes, it must be seen and also believed, because it is no longer the same thing.
The British Crown is going through the most serious crisis since the abdication of Edward VIII in 1936: it survived that time, now it might be time to doubt it. Collapses always happen gradually, then suddenly.