Kate's New Picture

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:TL;DR: The family is falling apart.

Losing a matriarch is hard. Things take time to settle in to a new pattern - and both Charles and William have been raised to guard their position and to keep others (each other, now) out. Catherine has been the one facilitating relationships in the family and she is not able to do so, now. They're all floundering - but not falling apart.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I suspect it was difficult to get a picture with everyone smiling and eyes open at the same time. I don’t think much else was done to the picture.

You are naive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it really is emergency “abdominal surgery” but Will and Kate mistakenly believe they’re entitled to privacy. They’re public figures funded by taxpayers and next in line to the throne. The public deserves an explanation. If Will and Kate don’t like the attention, they should get out of line and find jobs as private citizens.

I do think Kate had a surgery but I don't think all this weirdness can be explained by "oh they thought they could have more privacy than the public was willing to afford them." Yes people were clamoring for more information from the beginning when they announced her surgery and how long she'd be out of commission, just because it was so long. But if that was really all it was, and they wanted that privacy, they could have just proceeded with business as usual and stayed silent in the face of those demands.

The problem is that there have been several extremely weird events in the interim. William's odd public appearances. His last minute absence from the memorial service. And now this bizarre photo posted the same week as someone who looks a lot like Kate was seen in a car with Carole Middleton. It doesn't add up.

There's also the fact that if Kate just had a planned surgery and wanted a long recovery time, they literally could have just said that. In the last 18 months, QEII passed, they had the funeral which was a huge ordeal, then the family planned and executed the coronation which involved a lot of public events and commitments. They could have just said that Catherine is using the forced leave of absence due to surgery to take a slightly longer R&R and spend some private time with her children and family before resuming public duties. I actually think if they'd just been explicit that she needed a break after a very eventful year and a half, most people would be fine with it and have moved on. It's a few months and it's not like she's the Prime Minister. Being a mom (and raising the 1st/2nd/3rd in line to the throne) kind of is her main job, so taking some time off to be with her kids instead of going to flower shows and hospital openings is fine.

This truly is a problem of the palace's own making. You can't be mostly vague but then insist on a few very specific details, get super defensive when challenged at all, and then do stuff like release this weirdly doctored photo. They can actually get plenty of privacy, especially around medical issues, but they do have to provide some kind of believable explanation to the press and the public because when all they offer is nonsensical, people will of course speculate.

Actually, I think you are being dismissive of the extreme conspiracy theories. They announced her surgery and gave her return date - and people didn't accept it. With Charles' diagnosis of cancer, it's not great timing. But the public has gone absolutely crazy over Kate, speculating that she is in a coma on TV, divorcing, dead, etc. You're minimizing the public frenzy over her "disappearance" and pretending that the way her medical treatment was handled was problematic when it was handled exactly the way you described it should have been.

No, it was not handled as I suggest. What I'm saying is that they could have been MUCH more forthcoming. They could have explained up front why Catherine's recovery time was so long, and they could have done so without disclosing her condition if they wanted to keep that private. They CHOSE to leave that very open ended.

These people do in fact employ full time PR teams. There are ways to craft statements and release them so as to shut down speculation. If they'd just said from the beginning "Catherine is using the forced R&R from her recovery to take some extra time at home with her children," that would still be vague enough to protect her privacy but offer a ready-made response to all the conspiracy theorists who are like "what surgery could possibly require such a long recovery time???" Again, there are people who do this for a living and some of them even work for the palace, so the weird, vague, incomplete statements don't make sense at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What has William done….

Oh please, drama llama.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I suspect it was difficult to get a picture with everyone smiling and eyes open at the same time. I don’t think much else was done to the picture.

Actually, I've looked at it closely and yes, there's some weirdness with the left side - but it just looks like poor retouching/fixing to me. Nothing untoward at all. With the problems of AI, photoshopping, and "manipulation", I can see why the AP might be cautious, but taking the picture down seems very strange to me. They're going to have to put out another pic, maybe the unretouched version, IMO.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you think Harry and Meghan know what’s actually going on?

Yes and I will say Meghan is a freaking saint for not leaking it.

No way would the BRF family risk telling H&M.

William out here posting doctored pics but H&M can’t be trusted? If he ran his plan to post this pic by Harry, he probably wouldn’t have this sh**show!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I suspect it was difficult to get a picture with everyone smiling and eyes open at the same time. I don’t think much else was done to the picture.

You are naive.

PP doesn’t live in the land of conspiracy theories.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it really is emergency “abdominal surgery” but Will and Kate mistakenly believe they’re entitled to privacy. They’re public figures funded by taxpayers and next in line to the throne. The public deserves an explanation. If Will and Kate don’t like the attention, they should get out of line and find jobs as private citizens.

I do think Kate had a surgery but I don't think all this weirdness can be explained by "oh they thought they could have more privacy than the public was willing to afford them." Yes people were clamoring for more information from the beginning when they announced her surgery and how long she'd be out of commission, just because it was so long. But if that was really all it was, and they wanted that privacy, they could have just proceeded with business as usual and stayed silent in the face of those demands.

The problem is that there have been several extremely weird events in the interim. William's odd public appearances. His last minute absence from the memorial service. And now this bizarre photo posted the same week as someone who looks a lot like Kate was seen in a car with Carole Middleton. It doesn't add up.

There's also the fact that if Kate just had a planned surgery and wanted a long recovery time, they literally could have just said that. In the last 18 months, QEII passed, they had the funeral which was a huge ordeal, then the family planned and executed the coronation which involved a lot of public events and commitments. They could have just said that Catherine is using the forced leave of absence due to surgery to take a slightly longer R&R and spend some private time with her children and family before resuming public duties. I actually think if they'd just been explicit that she needed a break after a very eventful year and a half, most people would be fine with it and have moved on. It's a few months and it's not like she's the Prime Minister. Being a mom (and raising the 1st/2nd/3rd in line to the throne) kind of is her main job, so taking some time off to be with her kids instead of going to flower shows and hospital openings is fine.

This truly is a problem of the palace's own making. You can't be mostly vague but then insist on a few very specific details, get super defensive when challenged at all, and then do stuff like release this weirdly doctored photo. They can actually get plenty of privacy, especially around medical issues, but they do have to provide some kind of believable explanation to the press and the public because when all they offer is nonsensical, people will of course speculate.

Actually, I think you are being dismissive of the extreme conspiracy theories. They announced her surgery and gave her return date - and people didn't accept it. With Charles' diagnosis of cancer, it's not great timing. But the public has gone absolutely crazy over Kate, speculating that she is in a coma on TV, divorcing, dead, etc. You're minimizing the public frenzy over her "disappearance" and pretending that the way her medical treatment was handled was problematic when it was handled exactly the way you described it should have been.

No, it was not handled as I suggest. What I'm saying is that they could have been MUCH more forthcoming. They could have explained up front why Catherine's recovery time was so long, and they could have done so without disclosing her condition if they wanted to keep that private. They CHOSE to leave that very open ended.

These people do in fact employ full time PR teams. There are ways to craft statements and release them so as to shut down speculation. If they'd just said from the beginning "Catherine is using the forced R&R from her recovery to take some extra time at home with her children," that would still be vague enough to protect her privacy but offer a ready-made response to all the conspiracy theorists who are like "what surgery could possibly require such a long recovery time???" Again, there are people who do this for a living and some of them even work for the palace, so the weird, vague, incomplete statements don't make sense at all.

Oh please. Abdominal surgery could very well take months to recover from - you refuse to accept that but that doesn't mean the initial explanation wasn't perfectly fine. And you're also pretending that people's responses haven't been extraordinary. Saying she was in a coma on TV?!? That's insane!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Meanwhile:
What’s up with the story in the press going after Kate with a story about her being a bad friend, only to swap in Harry’s name the next day.
What is up with that?

I missed this… What?

Story printed in the daily mirror.
Feb 24 headline saying Kate could be you best friend one minute and then turn on a dime
Literally Kate’s name is switched to Harry’s the next day

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I suspect it was difficult to get a picture with everyone smiling and eyes open at the same time. I don’t think much else was done to the picture.

If it was so hard to get a photo with everyone smiling and eyes open that they feel the need to splice multiple photos together, then almost any working publicity professional would have told them "let's just release a statement or an older photo [identified as an older photo to be up front], since releasing ANOTHER weirdly photoshopped photo in this specific moment is likely to go over poorly."

It's not actually about the photo. It's about the weird timing of its release, the assertion it was taken last week (which they knew would get attention because that would make it the first official public "appearance" of either Catherine or the kids since December -- a big deal), and all the other strange statements and choices of the palace and William since this whole thing started.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I suspect it was difficult to get a picture with everyone smiling and eyes open at the same time. I don’t think much else was done to the picture.

If it was so hard to get a photo with everyone smiling and eyes open that they feel the need to splice multiple photos together, then almost any working publicity professional would have told them "let's just release a statement or an older photo [identified as an older photo to be up front], since releasing ANOTHER weirdly photoshopped photo in this specific moment is likely to go over poorly."

It's not actually about the photo. It's about the weird timing of its release, the assertion it was taken last week (which they knew would get attention because that would make it the first official public "appearance" of either Catherine or the kids since December -- a big deal), and all the other strange statements and choices of the palace and William since this whole thing started.

No, a Mother's Day pic is what they've been doing for years. Not weird at all. Totally normal and predictable. They released the pic, like normal - and then the internet blew up. No ring! Some poor retouching on the left side! Green leaves!

It's absurd.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I suspect it was difficult to get a picture with everyone smiling and eyes open at the same time. I don’t think much else was done to the picture.

You are naive.

Next family holiday and get a group photo. I’m sure everyone’s smiles and eyes will be perfect.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you think Harry and Meghan know what’s actually going on?

Yes and I will say Meghan is a freaking saint for not leaking it.

No way would the BRF family risk telling H&M.

William out here posting doctored pics but H&M can’t be trusted? If he ran his plan to post this pic by Harry, he probably wouldn’t have this sh**show!

Oh yes, as if H&M have never dealt with PR snafus is their own. Nobody is going to them for PR advice!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I suspect it was difficult to get a picture with everyone smiling and eyes open at the same time. I don’t think much else was done to the picture.

Actually, I've looked at it closely and yes, there's some weirdness with the left side - but it just looks like poor retouching/fixing to me. Nothing untoward at all. With the problems of AI, photoshopping, and "manipulation", I can see why the AP might be cautious, but taking the picture down seems very strange to me. They're going to have to put out another pic, maybe the unretouched version, IMO.

No it's more than that for 4 major worldwide news agencies - AP, AFP, Reuters and Getty - to all take it down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I suspect it was difficult to get a picture with everyone smiling and eyes open at the same time. I don’t think much else was done to the picture.

If it was so hard to get a photo with everyone smiling and eyes open that they feel the need to splice multiple photos together, then almost any working publicity professional would have told them "let's just release a statement or an older photo [identified as an older photo to be up front], since releasing ANOTHER weirdly photoshopped photo in this specific moment is likely to go over poorly."

It's not actually about the photo. It's about the weird timing of its release, the assertion it was taken last week (which they knew would get attention because that would make it the first official public "appearance" of either Catherine or the kids since December -- a big deal), and all the other strange statements and choices of the palace and William since this whole thing started.

DP. But if they released an older photo, people would have asked why they didn't have a current photo, and would have speculated about what they were "hiding."

I agree there are a lot of red flags about what's been happening with her health, with William, and so on. But it seems like they were in a bind. Maybe better not to release anything than this?