Spotlight on the Crisis of the British Crown

Last weekend, the news that dominated the world’s headlines was undoubtedly the release of a video statement by Britain’s Princess of Wales, Kate, admitting that she is in the early stages of treatment for cancer. Only a day before the statement, speculation and even rumors were flying about Princess Kate’s lack of public appearances since Christmas. In the face of the candid and haggard Princess, Britons suddenly had a “guilty conscience” and apologized to Kate. Some newspapers demanded an end to the rumors and harm done to Kate. Flowers were again piled up at Kate’s Prince’s Palace and in front of the Royal Courts of Justice, encouraging Kate to overcome her illness.

Where has Kate gone?

Until March 22, when the BBC first released a video of Princess Kate admitting she had cancer, “Where’s Kate?” had become a global topic, with trending searches for her whereabouts, news headlines, and even conspiracy theories.

Kate has not been seen in public since last Christmas. Until January 17th, the British royal family suddenly issued a statement that Princess Kate was hospitalized on January 16th to undergo a planned abdominal surgery, and said that she would not participate in any public activities before Easter (March 31st.) On January 29th, Kensington Palace again issued a statement saying that Princess Kate has returned home, and the progress is good.

Since the royal family did not tell the specific type of surgery, some netizens claimed that the private hospital where Kate had her surgery was famous for treating cancer, suggesting that Kate had an “incurable” disease. Since then, social media has been abuzz with talk of Kate’s long absence. Every day or two, a new conspiracy theory emerges to try to explain Kate’s “disappearance”: some say Kate is in critical condition and has a short life expectancy; others say she has passed away, and others say she has suffered a marital breakdown……. People have even begun to worry that Kate will repeat the tragedy of Princess Diana.

In the face of all the speculation and even malicious rumors, the British royal family has long practiced the principle of “silence is golden”. It wasn’t until March 10th, Mother’s Day, that Kate and William’s social media accounts posted the first official photo of Kate since Christmas in an attempt to dispel the rumors. In the photo, Kate is sitting in a chair surrounded by her children, all four of them smiling happily. William captioned the photo, “Thank you all for your wonderful wishes and support over the last two months, Happy Mother’s Day to you all.” However, the photo was taken down by a number of media outlets after it was pointed out that there were obvious signs of retouching in several of the details, and the story became more and more confusing.

The next day, the account apologized in Kate’s own words, saying, “Like many amateur photographers, I occasionally try to edit, and I want to apologize for any confusion caused by the family photo we shared yesterday. There was a public outcry. It’s been an eye-opening crisis of PR for the royal family. The only way to put the rumors to rest was for the right person to come forward, which led to last weekend’s video statement.

For a long time, the British royal public relations (PR) department has been trying to find a balance between “friendliness” and “mystery”. This year, the royal family has been under attack several times. First, King Charles suspended his public activities due to cancer, and then Princess Kate did not show up for a long time.Princess Kate’s appearance on camera will put an end to some of the speculation, but in the spotlight, the British royal family will have to face the new challenges of the information age.

The privacy of royals needs to be respected

The release of Princess Kate’s video statement gained a great deal of attention from people around the world. A spokesman for Kensington Palace later said in a statement that the Williams had received “very touching messages of goodwill” since Kate, Princess of Wales, was publicly diagnosed with cancer, and that they were “grateful for the public’s warmth, support and understanding of their fundamental need to respect privacy at this time”. This is partly a thank you for the public’s warm concern and response, and partly a “polite warning”. After all, the publicizing of the diagnosis is over.

The last few weeks have been extremely difficult for Mr. and Mrs. Williams, their children, and the teams around them, and despite attempts to dispel the rumors, it has proven to be an impossible task. The release of the video statement was a “no-brainer” that put an end to the secrecy surrounding Princess Kate’s diagnosis, including all the false rumors and allegations that had been made. What the royal couple probably wants more than anything else is to be alone, to spend better family time with their three young children, and not be subjected to the constant distractions of the outside world.

William’s three children, including 10-year-old Prince George, 8-year-old Princess Charlotte, 5-year-old Prince Louis school has begun on the 22nd Easter holiday, until April 17th will not return to school, William and his wife has already stated that will not participate in this year’s Easter ceremony. Kate’s choice to announce her condition on the day before her children’s Easter vacation after a three-month hiatus can be described as a “pity for the world’s parents”. This way, they can bring their three children home to a safer and more enclosed environment, where they will be exposed to as little outside interference as possible, and where they will be more emotionally and psychologically receptive.

But will the British media and public, who have always been critical of the royals, let a young family in a vulnerable situation off the hook so easily? The cancer announcement is just the beginning of what could be even greater pressure on Princess Kate to reveal more details about her condition, and cancer-related charities may jump on her to raise their profile. Discussing the disease in public may give some patients a sense of control and support, but for others it’s a very private matter, whether the patient is a member of the royal family or a member of the general public. Kate has sacrificed some of her privacy, and that request for “privacy” deserves to be honored.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak noted that Kate had “shown great courage” in her statement, adding that she had been “unfairly treated by some media and social media outlets around the world”. Princess Kate is a member of the royal family, but she is also a woman, a wife, a mother, a daughter, a living human being who needs the company and support of others at such a difficult time in her life – especially family members and loved ones, but not strangers and megaphones. Assuming that one day Princess Kate recovers, if she doesn’t want to talk to us or anyone else about what she’s been through, that’s her choice, and there’s no room for anyone else to tell her what to do.

The embarrassment of the royal family

In the age of social media, people have become so accustomed to uninhibited access to public figures that it’s only natural to unrealistically expect them to be completely self-disclosing. The general public is wildly skeptical of public figures’ need for privacy. When any public figure expresses a desire to stay out of the spotlight, people tend to make bad, even vicious, assumptions. In the case of the video statement, the conspiracy theories turned out to be about a woman with cancer. In the face of such a horrific disease, Kate is just another human being who has the right to deal with her illness on her own.

But Princess Kate’s cancer diagnosis does put the British royal family in an even more uncertain position. Charles, who succeeded to the throne in September 2022 after the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth, underwent surgery to correct an enlarged prostate at the same hospital as Kate in January. Buckingham Palace subsequently revealed in February that the 75-year-old King would be undergoing treatment for cancer, meaning he would have to postpone his public royal duties. With the serious health problems of both the King and Kate adding to the already thinning monarchy, the pressure on Prince William is conceivably severe.

Democracy in Britain has been a gradual process, and the monarch has always existed. The constitutional monarchy was the most natural path for the British. As the power of the monarch gradually weakened, the monarch eventually became a symbol. Charles had no power, and although he was clothed in fine clothes and food, he was just a decoration. At the beginning of the centuries-long process of gradual democratization, the existence of a monarch was a reason for stability and obedience for a people who had been completely familiar and accustomed to monarchical power for millennia, and for the army and the people of the nation. Even if it is an “ornament”, it cannot be abolished at will. The existence of the royal family is not only a cultural preservation of history, but also a living fossil of political history, and since the existence of the king has not hindered the progress of democracy, there is no reason why it should be abolished.

During the crisis public relations campaign for Princess Kate’s disappearance, the British royal family’s stagnant silence has annoyed the social media-obsessed public. With conspiracy theories updated every few days, it was as if the public and the royal family were living in different generations – clearly, the royal family is having trouble keeping up with the ever-changing internet age. Social media is supposed to be a win-win for the royals, a means of getting their message out without question or tampering, except for the tampering of Kate’s photo, which has inevitably eroded the royal family’s credibility.

Even though most people may forgive and forget, trust is vital to the monarchy. Moreover, in a recent survey, 69% of Britons said they were worried about the difficulty of distinguishing truth from fiction on the Internet. This was before the swirl of rumors and misinformation about Katherine. And this incident will undoubtedly further exacerbate people’s skepticism about much of what they see in the news media and on social media. The biggest example of this was when the BBC published the video of Princess Kate’s cancer announcement, and immediately afterward there were voices on the internet questioning whether it had been synthesized by AI. People’s confidence in the information environment is waning.

The British royal family has been in turmoil since 1936, when Edward VIII “did not love the kingdom but the beauty”. Over the past 70 years, Elizabeth II has played the role of the “spiritual symbol” of the royal family with a high approval rate, bringing a relatively positive image of the British royal family, but her grandchildren have been involved in numerous scandals, and the internal affairs of the royal family have been frequently exposed to the world. After the death of the Queen, the British royal family has lost its backbone, and Princess Kate, who has always been well-liked by the public, is undoubtedly a new star of the British royal family – her cancer at this time seems to have pushed the reasonableness of the existence of the royal family system into a great unknown.

Australian Responses

To this day, Australia is theoretically a federal state under the Emperor of Australia, with each state and territory and the Commonwealth having a Governor appointed by Charles III. Princess Kate’s husband, Prince William, could have succeeded Charles III as head of the Australian states and commonwealths before Australia became a republic. However, today’s Australians, who come from more than a hundred countries around the world, and especially those who have immigrated from Asia in the last thirty years, do not see themselves as being connected to the royal family. Generally speaking, Australians are not as enthusiastic as the British about the privacy of the royal family.

At the end of the last century, when a referendum was held on whether to change the system of government and establish a republic, those who opposed the idea of maintaining a constitutional monarchy won by a small majority, thus temporarily silencing the calls for change. Occasionally, however, there were still demands. At the death of Queen Elizabeth II, it was thought that Charles III was too old and would probably make Australia a republic in the short term because of the disinterest in the crown and the low level of support among Australians.

This time, Princess Kate, as a woman suffering from cancer, told the public about her situation and demanded respect from the public, and gained the support of the community in Australia. The Australian society attaches importance to the rights of the disadvantaged groups in the society. The way Princess Kate handled the situation may be seen as a way to promote respect for women’s rights and concern for cancer patients in the society. If this happens, it may well slow down the demand for Australia to change its status to a republic. If it does, it may be an outcome that was not envisioned at the outset of the incident.

Article/Editorial Department (Sameway Magazine)

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