OMG. As I rolled my eyes. So loud I moaned. Inside me, then. The reason was that the internet had begun to doubt whether the family photo of Kate, Princess of Wales, which had been shared on social media, was as real as it seemed. The skeptics outdid each other in finding errors and absurdities in the picture of the princess and her three children. Both the publication and the hunt for fault, of course, had to do with the whirlwind of conspiracy theories that had arisen after Kate was admitted to hospital, then disappeared from public view. LAST PUBLIC APPEARANCE: The Princess of Wales has not appeared in public since she attended Christmas service in Sandringham before New Year. Photo: Adrian Dennis / AFP Help me, I thought. Now she has actually replied, and posted a picture of herself. And yet they just keep going. It is actually impossible to overcome a conspiracy theory once it has taken hold. I thought. But then the serious news agencies started pulling the picture. Then Kate herself admitted that it was manipulated. It appeared as a precise PR shot in the foot. The conspiracy theorists were strengthened in the belief that someone was trying to deceive us all. And we, the crowd, suddenly realized just how disturbing the prince couple and the system around them found the conspiracy theories to be. How desperate to quell them. The whole story bears witness to a royal institution that has not figured out how to deal with a modern reality, where gaps in information are quickly followed by speculation. And, yes, of conspiracy theories. It creates a challenge for a royal house where, for decades after decades, the main characters have lived by the mantra “don’t complain, and don’t explain yourself”. BACK FROM THE HOSPITAL: Prince William drives home after visiting his wife in hospital. The conspiracy theorists have followed him with suspicious eyes since Kate was admitted. Photo: AFP In all interactions between people there is a foreground and a background, a certain distance between how we present ourselves to others and how we really are. What we say to each other is never only guided by sincerity, but also by what the situation demands and expects. In the case of royalty, this difference is formalized, overt. Everyone knows that what the royals do, when we see them, is governed by strict rules and norms. For the sake of the public and the institution they represent. There is more that keeps them from being “themselves”, whatever that is, than for the rest of us. This of course creates curiosity. That is why books about the royals so often promise to take you behind the facade, into the scenes. But there are probably several reasons why the conspiracy theories caught fire. Ellie Hall, royal reporter for The Daily Beast, believes that mistrust of the royal communication apparatus has increased considerably in recent years. It has to do with Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, and the story they have told about their experiences as royalty. DISTRUST OF THE SYSTEM: The criticism of Prince Harry and his wife Meghan against the British monarchy has created distrust among many towards official statements from the royal PR apparatus. Photo: Martin Meissner / AP In his autobiography “Spare”, the prince drew an unflattering portrait of an intriguing and cynical royal system, where it was lied to and manipulated over a low shoe. The couple has many followers, especially among the younger part of the public. The tendency to look for hidden and dark motives was thus already in place before Kate was operated on. This distrust is not unfounded. There are numerous examples of the apparatus surrounding the British royals trying to suppress information, influence the press, and portray conflicts as less serious than they are. There is still, for the time being, no reason to believe that reality is radically different from what we are told, the fad with photography notwithstanding. To take it all from the beginning. On 17 January this year, it was announced that Kate had been admitted to a hospital. The letter from Kensington Palace, which manages communications for the Prince and Princess of Wales, said she was scheduled to have an operation in the stomach region and was unlikely to undertake any official duties until after Easter. BECAME ROYAL: Kate Middleton became royal when she married Prince William in Westminster Abbey in 2011. Photo: Martin Meissner / AP The lack of information about what was wrong with the princess, and the fact that she completely disappeared from the public eye, is what made the conspiracy theories first started boiling. Some thought she was more ill than the PR apparatus had given the impression. Some thought she was in a coma. Others that she had run away from the marriage. Still others, possibly not 100 percent serious, that she had cut an undressable bang and would not show herself until it had grown back. But anyway: The subject tag #whereiskate grew and grew. The interesting thing here is not necessarily what happens to Kate. The interesting thing is that people don’t really care either. They have always done that. The startling thing is that Kensington Palace cares. Several times royal employees have allowed themselves to be quoted, with increasingly noticeable irritation, that the situation was as they had initially said and that there was nothing more to say. So this happens in a royal workplace where everyone knows very well that commenting on anything at all is usually a bad idea. As is well known, it is often not the rumour, but the dementia, that makes the news. DIFFERENT THAN THE DAUGHTER-IN-LAW: King Charles III has been seen every now and then despite his cancer treatment, as in this photograph distributed by Buckingham Palace in connection with a speech the king gave. Photo: Reuters Historically, the royal houses have always wanted the only thing we should know about the royals, is what happens in the foreground. Because as soon as we get behind it, it takes the attention away from everything else, from visits to hospitals and factories, from speeches and wreath laying. But something must be done differently. In the new world, it is impossible to keep things quiet. It is not very good to say exactly what Kensington Palace has to do. Perhaps give out enough information that they can control the conversation to some extent, and don’t have to follow theories other people cook up. In any case, they need to gain a better understanding of the times they live in. Because to an increasingly large extent, if the public does not get to know what is happening behind the scenes, they create their own narrative, and make it overriding.
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A precise PR shot in the foot – Statement
