Princess Diana’s brother, Charles Spencer, has spoken out about the wild conspiracies surrounding Princess Kate Middleton‘s heath crisis.
“I do worry about what happened to the truth,” Charles, 59, told the BBC on Sunday, March 17, about the wife of his nephew Prince William.
Kate, 42, has been out of the public eye since she underwent “planned abdominal surgery” on January 16. Her last royal event was the family’s annual Christmas Day walk to St Mary Magdalene Church on the Sandringham estate in 2023.
The day after Kate’s procedure, Kensington Palace released the news about her operation, as well as confirmation of her very lengthy recovery period. Not only was the princess going to spend “10 to 14 days” in the hospital before returning home to continue her recovery, “she is unlikely to return to public duties until after Easter,” the statement read.
Kate also did not disclose the specifics of what type of surgery she underwent, which, combined with her long recovery time, led to conspiracy theories as she remained out of the public eye.
Some media users speculated that she underwent plastic surgery, while others claimed her condition had left her in a medically induced coma.
The rumors became so loud that the princess’ communications team had to reiterate that nothing had changed from Kate’s original prognosis that she would be out of the public eye until after Easter.
“Kensington Palace made it clear in January the timelines of the Princess’ recovery and we’d only be providing significant updates. That guidance stands,” palace officials told ABC News on February 29.
Conspiracy theories started up again after Kate posed with her three children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, for a photo taken by William, 41, in honor of U.K.’s Mother’s Day.
“Thank you for your kind wishes and continued support over the last two months. Wishing everyone a Happy Mother’s Day,” she wrote in the caption on March 10. However, questions arose about whether the snapshot had been altered after it appeared Charlotte’s sweater sleeve had been edited, along with several other possible Photoshop issues.
Fans also noticed that Kate wasn’t wearing her wedding or engagement rings from William in the photo
Later that day, several prominent photo agencies released a kill notice for the image, advising outlets to take the picture down because “it appears that the source has manipulated the image.”
Kate admitted to making slight changes to the image, writing in a post on X, “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.”
The admission caused further speculation about the state of Kate’s health, with some users on X not believing that the photo of the princess was recent. British TV personality Piers Morgan even questioned why the princess released an edited photo at all.
“Kate needs a break, I agree, but it was their decision to release this photograph and it’s led to even more conspiracy theories,” Piers, 58, told OK! Magazine on March 14. “On one level [the edited picture] could be trivial — she could be fine and doing well and tried to do something to correct the conspiracies and got it wrong — or it could be that they’re hiding something.”
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