Oh dear. Hail has been added to the rainstorm. Apparently the suite of photos available in print now includes shots of Kate removing and replacing her bikini bottoms.
Article here.
I am so disgusted. And a little heartsick for the two of them. A piece of me wants them to both strip naked, get out on the balcony of Buckingham Palace, invite the world's press corp, let them take as many pictures as they want and be done with it. Take the mystique, mystery and novelty away and you have no interest.
Whatever minor, fleeting, vestigial thoughts I had regarding how they might have, possibly, been more aware of the risk and acted accordingly or how their security might have been a little more vigilant have been *entirely* replaced by disgust to even be a part of a species (the only one, mind you) that preys on its own members.
It's not even about them being a Royal Prince and his wife, a Royal Duchess. It's not about them being a future Monarch and his Consort. It's about them being human beings. People. What sadness they must have in their hearts, what heaviness of spirit, to know that this is the world in which they are expected to provide leadership.
There are two ways it can go:
1. They will close up, guard their privacy so profoundly that they become true figureheads (not in the political sense) ... and we lose one of our most important connections to them. I worry more about this with Prince William than with Catherine.
2. They will refuse to let the cycle break them and they will try to break it by not allowing such things to alter who and what they are and how they conduct themselves among their own people(s). They will become more open, defiantly even.
I am sincerely hoping for a little defiance. Keep that thunder on your face, William, it's a good look - just keep it pointed at the target.