Kate Middleton has been spotted for the first time since those old affair rumors of William and her ex-friend, Rose Hanbury, resurfaced. The peculiar thing is that despite everything—her mysterious abdominal surgery and conspiracy theories surrounding her public disappearance—there are no photos.
According to The Sun, onlookers said she looked “happy, relaxed and healthy” as she paid a visit to a Windsor farm shop on Saturday, March 16, 2024. “Kate was out shopping with William and she looked happy and she looked well,” an anonymous source told the tabloid. “The kids weren’t with them but it’s such a good sign she was healthy enough to pop down to the shops.”
The Royal’s last public outing and official engagement was at the annual walk to church on Christmas Day 2023. She walked with Prince William and their three children — Prince George, 10, Princess Charlotte, 8, and Prince Louis, 5.
Ever since it was (vaguely) announced she was undergoing “planned” abdominal surgery that would involve a long recovery time, wild conspiracy theories about where Kate Middleton is have exploded online.
Tabloid headlines and royal experts certainly haven’t helped. In fact, some coverage that skirts the edges of media ethics has seemingly added fuel to the fire. “Pregnant primary school teacher, 26, suffering same ‘morning sickness’ as the Princess of Wales killed herself after medical care ‘contributed to a deterioration in her mental health’, coroner rules” read one Daily Mail headline published on January 30, 2024.
In 2017, it was revealed that Catherine suffered from Hyperemesis gravidarum, which is severe nausea and vomiting during pregnancy. With the help of media lawyers, I’m certain, the British news outlet has suggested, however vaguely, that the Princess might be experiencing mental health issues.
Queen Camilla’s biographer, meanwhile, made a similar connotation. On GBN, Angela Levin implied that because Prince William “had to deal” with his mother Princess Diana’s “crying and screaming” when he was 15, he’ll be better equipped to prioritize his wife’s health now that he’s a grown man.
Another journalist, Concha Calleja, claimed that the Princess of Wales had undergone a hysterectomy—removal of the uterus—and that “they had to intubate her” in an induced coma when she “suffered serious complications during the post-operative period,” citing she had reputable sources to back up these claims.
Calleja continued: “They were serious complications that were not expected,” she said. “What I cannot confirm is if this continues like this, if they have waited for that fifteen-day process. Her life has been in great danger. In fact, the concern in the Royal Family was palpable, it was to save lives.”
The Palace responded to the rumor, not in an official statement but via a source. “It’s total nonsense,” a palace insider told The Times. “No attempt was made by that journalist to fact-check anything that she said with anyone in the household. It’s fundamentally, totally made-up, and I’ll use polite English here: it’s absolutely not the case.”
