Princess of Wales Undergoing Cancer Treatment

Mbruno said:

In my view, your wife's receiving a cancer diagnosis can be a "personal reason" to cancel an engagement.

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Except that the the public was told that the "personal" reason had nothing to do with his wife's health.

There is no direct quote from the couple or Kensington Palace as to the reason why the Prince canceled and we have no knowledge of when exactly the Princess received a diagnosis of cancer.

It is all just speculation on the press and people's part.

HRHHermione said:

I actually think it’s an enormous communications success that they were able to control the information successfully and release it only on the Friday before their children’s school break where they can help them process public reaction privately as a family before the kids go back to school.

When any strategy is evaluated, it should be evaluated with the question of whether the strategy achieved its intended goal. People have trashed that team, with the assumption that the goal was to keep the public informed and minimize speculation. As someone with a graduate education in business, I suggest that people got it wrong. That was never the goal. The primary goal was always about what would be most manageable for their children.

From that perspective, KP was very successful in obtaining the outcome most important to William and Catherine.

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But at what cost though? They were able to delay releasing the diagnosis as long as they could, basically, until she started chemo and the visible signs would start to show. In the mean time, their children had to go to school everyday with social media rife with the most vile speculation. Not only that, they had to allow the most popular member of the royal family be dragged through the mud on social media. So much so that major news sources had to report on it. In turn, they rushed out a photoshopped picture which made things worse and then had to go as far as to release a pre-recorded message instead of just a simple statement to quell the hysteria. Yes, it was important to put their children first and find the right way to tell them but in being so hyper focused on that they lost the plot and opened the doors to this chaos. The Princess of Wales and her children didn't deserve this. It was an abject failure on the part of their team and, I believe, William's.

That being said, the Princess has told her children and us, in her own words, that she will be ok. The cancer seems to have been caught at a very early stage. The chemo will take a toll, and her time out of the spotlight will be prolonged, so I just hope the Wales's team have learned from their mistakes and take back control of the narrative.

I know some may think I am being "distasteful and inappropriate" but this is not a death sentence, I can offer my utmost support to the Princess of Wales and wish her complete health, while also criticizing her team for a truly international mess that has emerged around this situation.

I wish her well but I am very very worried cancer in that part of the body never never ends well.

Saragli said:

But at what cost though? They were able to delay releasing the diagnosis as long as they could, basically, until she started chemo and the visible signs would start to show. In the mean time, their children had to go to school everyday with social media rife with the most vile speculation

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At a pretty reasonable and unavoidable cost, from my perspective. The speculation would have happened no matter what, in any circumstance where the Princess needed time off. That was hard. But I think those kids are being raised with the knowledge that they will always be told first what is going on with their parents and that anything in the media that they have not been directly told about should be considered unreliable. That is, in every way, better than what William and Harry grew up with. They learned from the headlines what was happening with their parents and had to piece together for themselves what was true and what wasn’t.

I also think the public is consistently and firmly being told that any information should be considered unreliable until directly confirmed by the Wales family. That is a solid communications strategy and I do not think anyone could do better.

Saragli said:

But at what cost though? They were able to delay releasing the diagnosis as long as they could, basically, until she started chemo and the visible signs would start to show. In the mean time, their children had to go to school everyday with social media rife with the most vile speculation. Not only that, they had to allow the most popular member of the royal family be dragged through the mud on social media. So much so that major news sources had to report on it. In turn, they rushed out a photoshopped picture which made things worse and then had to go as far as to release a pre-recorded message instead of just a simple statement to quell the hysteria. Yes, it was important to put their children first and find the right way to tell them but in being so hyper focused on that they lost the plot and opened the doors to this chaos. The Princess of Wales and her children didn't deserve this. It was an abject failure on the part of their team and, I believe, William's.

That being said, the Princess has told her children and us, in her own words, that she will be ok. The cancer seems to have been caught at a very early stage. The chemo will take a toll, and her time out of the spotlight will be prolonged, so I just hope the Wales's team have learned from their mistakes and take back control of the narrative.

I know some may think I am being "distasteful and inappropriate" but this is not a death sentence, I can offer my utmost support to the Princess of Wales and wish her complete health, while also criticizing her team for a truly international mess that has emerged around this situation.

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Although I also did not think the media strategy seemed very effective, with today´s video and information I understand why they did things the way they did. The Princess and the family obviously needed time to come to terms with - and process the news. I can understand why that took some time, such a diagnosis will come as an enormous shock and not everybody is 'ready' to share that with others, let alone to share it with the whole world. The PoW herself referred to this in her statement, in relation to informing the children.

Hallo girl said:

Cancer is not a game that you play. Maybe he just couldn’t face people that day, it was not a royal event as such., it was a family event.

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At the end of the day, William and Catherine aren’t robots - as you say, this isn’t a game, it’s a huge part of their lives.

And, related to the timing of W and K receiving the news about the diagnosis, I would say it doesn’t matter whether they’d gotten word immediately before the service or not. Attending a service like that and especially reading a poignant passage like he was meant to might have been asking too much of him at that point, whether it had been a couple of hours or a couple of weeks since he’d found out about Catherine.

Or maybe Kate had just started chemo and was feeling very poorly, or they’d just told the children and one (or all) of them was struggling, or whatever - getting the news about the diagnosis is really only the start of a very difficult process.

HRHHermione said:

I actually think it’s an enormous communications success that they were able to control the information successfully and release it only on the Friday before their children’s school break where they can help them process public reaction privately as a family before the kids go back to school.

When any strategy is evaluated, it should be evaluated with the question of whether the strategy achieved its intended goal. People have trashed that team, with the assumption that the goal was to keep the public informed and minimize speculation. As someone with a graduate education in business, I suggest that people got it wrong. That was never the goal. The primary goal was always about what would be most manageable for their children.

From that perspective, KP was very successful in obtaining the outcome most important to William and Catherine.

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I think the opposite. I think the whole thing was a communications disaster and a lesson other royals can learn in "what not to do".

I think the announcement came this quick as less than 72 hours ago the security breach was announced. In other words, their backs were against the wall. Surely the couple wouldn't want people to find out that the Princess is being treated for cancer this way.
[…]
I think the couple needs a new team moving forward. One that is proactive and can control the narrative rather being reactive.

PhillyMonarchist said:

I wish her well but I am very very worried cancer in that part of the body never never ends well.

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This is objectively untrue. People with cancers affecting different areas in the abdomen often recover and live long lives. Without knowing anything about what cancer she has or what stage it was found, there is no appropriate way to speculate on her prognosis.

Alisa said:

I think the opposite. I think the whole thing was a communications disaster and a lesson other royals can learn in "what not to do".

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Opinions can differ of course. I suspect that in the long term, a few weeks of speculation will mean less than nothing and being able to effectively protect privacy and control the message timeline to support their kids will mean everything.

In short, I don’t expect a lot of sackings at KP and we may see a few popping up in the honours list in time.

Somebody said:

At that time, it was made clear that his absence was not related to Thomas Kingston's death. They didn't say anything about whether the personal reasons were related to Catherine's health - which most people assumed it was in one way or another.

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That was AFTER the announcement. In the initial announcement Kensington stated the Prince was absent for "personal" matter and the ALSO stated that the Princess was doing well and recovering just fine.

In other words, her health wasn't the reason for his absence.

HRHHermione said:

Opinions can differ of course. I suspect that in the long term, a few weeks of speculation will mean less than nothing and being able to effectively protect privacy and control the message timeline to support their kids will mean everything.

In short, I don’t expect a lot of sackings at KP and we may see a few popping up in the honours list in time.

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I'm not sure what George and Charlotte has access to. If they see news papers, are allowed on social media, and even news shows I think we can agree that it is a bit too late.
The things said about the Princess has been nothing short of vile and one can only hope that the children are shielded from all that.

Perhaps not "a lot of sacking" but maybe the people at the top who make executive decisions.
The honours will no doubt come for the ones who are effective in turning things around for the couple's PR and making things a success.

HRHHermione said:

Opinions can differ of course. I suspect that in the long term, a few weeks of speculation will mean less than nothing and being able to effectively protect privacy and control the message timeline to support their kids will mean everything.

In short, I don’t expect a lot of sackings at KP and we may see a few popping up in the honours list in time.

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I agree with you, and I think they've done a decent job overall. But, KP really needs to fill the information void better, or they're going to face endless speculation. They have a very, very tough assignment.

PhillyMonarchist said:

I wish her well but I am very very worried cancer in that part of the body never never ends well.

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We don't know where the cancer was located nor what kind of cancer she's being treated for. The "abdomen" encompasses a lot of things. So, let's not start measuring her for a coffin. Not only is that ghoulish, it's inappropriate.

Alisa said:

That was AFTER the announcement. In the initial announcement Kensington stated the Prince was absent for "personal" matter and the ALSO stated that the Princess was doing well and recovering just fine.

In other words, her health wasn't the reason for his absence.

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Kate probably was doing well and recovering fine in terms of her surgery. But, if she received news of her cancer diagnosis, William probably wanted to be at her side as they explored possible treatments.

kalnel said:

I agree with you, and I think they've done a decent job overall. But, KP really needs to fill the information void better, or they're going to face endless speculation. They have a very, very tough assignment.

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If I were writing this as a business case, I think my thesis would be that comms professionals should recognize that the information void doesn’t matter as much as people believe and that speculation is an appropriate risk to tolerate in exchange for control of when information is disclosed.

Situations like this do not have a perfect solution. It’s hard no matter how you present it. But it seems to me they appropriately considered all angles and chose to accept the downside that mattered the least to the Prince and Princess of Wales (speculation on them and their marriage) in exchange for doing what is best for what mattered most to them (releasing the information in the best way for their children.)

IIRC when the surgery was first announced, it was stated that Kate would be recuperating and out of public eye until after Easter. Which is March 31, a week from Sunday. So why was anybody wondering where she was? And she is so much in the public eye, it's no wonder she didn't want to spill all the details of her condition. And if hospital personnel leaked her medical information or records, they should be fired.

I think people were wondering where she was because certain elements on social media were doing their best to conspiracy theorize in order to damage the Wales family because they hate William and Kate. You don't make a 30 series Tiktok series called Where the F* is Kate Middleton, speculating darkly about William, out of genuine and compassionate concern; you do it because you have an axe to grind or you're making a significant amount of money, or both.

Were most of the social media posts from low-information non-royal-watchers who have no idea about how the Palace works but found the speculation interesting or compelling? Yes.. I saw them myself (and ground my teeth a lot because holy hell, people who have no idea about the institution are not making useful contributions to the conversation).

But that conversation was *driven* by a cadre of social media users who've been driving the Anti-Kate/Anti-William narrative for years now. And those people would not stop spreading their poison; if the Palace had photocopied 3 million copies of her surgical and path reports and flown over London shovelling them out of the back of the plane, the cadre would spin the details ("they're fake, you can tell from this sign" "it's just an attempt to distract from the "affair") or outright lie, the same way they've been doing all along.

It's one thing to fight misinformation, which is hard enough. Fighting disinformation is effectively impossible, especially when people are highly motivated to spread it. I cannot blame Kate for not wanting to offer up her private medical details, or "proof of life" videos just to have them weaponized against her by malevolent Twitter, Insta, and Tiktok harpies.

In short, it's easy to say Kensington Palace could have done it better, but I honestly don't think it would have made much difference to the online cruelty, and it would have set toxic expectations for the future.

HRHHermione said:

If I were writing this as a business case, I think my thesis would be that comms professionals should recognize that the information void doesn’t matter as much as people believe and that speculation is an appropriate risk to tolerate in exchange for control of when information is disclosed.

Situations like this do not have a perfect solution. It’s hard no matter how you present it. But it seems to me they appropriately considered all angles and chose to accept the downside that mattered the least to the Prince and Princess of Wales (speculation on them and their marriage) in exchange for doing what is best for what mattered most to them (releasing the information in the best way for their children.)

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I'd say it really comes down to what the client's goals are. In this situation, there are competing goals: Protecting the individual's privacy versus informing the public about the health status of a public servant.

Kate and William's communications team has a tough balancing act ahead. They'll need to keep feeding information about Kate to the public without revealing much. Too little information, and the speculation will come back to bite them (as it has in recent weeks). Too much information, and they'll set off a whole different line of speculation.

I'd actually point to BP as a good model for them. We haven't heard anything more about Charles' cancer or treatment, but BP has provided a steady stream of photos and videos that show him doing his thing, and Camilla has made some effective casual comments. It's reassuring without being revealing.

Saragli said:

I know some may think I am being "distasteful and inappropriate" but this is not a death sentence, I can offer my utmost support to the Princess of Wales and wish her complete health, while also criticizing her team for a truly international mess that has emerged around this situation.

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This is distasteful and innapriopriate, and the fact that some people are still brainstorming about the dos ans donts on the PR front is just appaling.

We must keep in mind that the Princess of Wales was litteraly FORCED in the most disturbing way to make this utmost personnal statement just to feed the rather sordid curiosity of somewhat anonymous people behind their screens.

It speaks volume, IMO, on the state of our society where the basic human decency is just left behind just for the sake of the right to criticize everything and everyone because one feels entitled to do so.

Shameful really.

Regarding their determination to do what's best for the children, I think it's also important to remember that Kate is one of the most informed lay people around about early childhood development and William has the experience of childhood bereavement and all the impacts that's had on him and his brother, along with all the people he's heard from at Child Bereavement UK.

I'm sure the impact of "getting it wrong" when it comes to the disclosure to the kids and their environment while she's undergoing treatment is in the forefront of their minds.

For members of the Royal family medical health has always been a public passtime. From examination for chastity to scrutiny for diabetes there has always been much ado about health. I am grateful that royals get good medical care. In some countries there is no care for the poor, starving and dying. Cancer is horrible! I would wish it on no person. With early detection, prompt medical care people can recover. I wish the family health and long life.

Alisa said:

I think the opposite. I think the whole thing was a communications disaster and a lesson other royals can learn in "what not to do".

I think the announcement came this quick as less than 72 hours ago the security breach was announced. In other words, their backs were against the wall. Surely the couple wouldn't want people to find out that the Princess is being treated for cancer this way.

I think the couple needs a new team moving forward. One that is proactive and can control the narrative rather being reactive.

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I think the public announcement was pretty clearly timed to coincide with the kids Easter break. Which makes a lot of sense. I don’t think it had anything to do with the security breach.

This allows the kids to not have to hear everyone talking about it at school when it is fresh news.

All I see is William and Catherine doing what they have always done- putting the kids first.

kalnel said:

I'd actually point to BP as a good model for them. We haven't heard anything more about Charles' cancer or treatment, but BP has provided a steady stream of photos and videos that show him doing his thing, and Camilla has made some effective casual comments. It's reassuring without being revealing.

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Well said! Perhaps BP should dispatch personnel to help the couple's communications team!

kalnel said:

I'd say it really comes down to what the client's goals are. In this situation, there are competing goals: Protecting the individual's privacy versus informing the public about the health status of a public servant.

Kate and William's communications team has a tough balancing act ahead. They'll need to keep feeding information about Kate to the public without revealing much. Too little information, and the speculation will come back to bite them (as it has in recent weeks). Too much information, and they'll set off a whole different line of speculation.

I'd actually point to BP as a good model for them. We haven't heard anything more about Charles' cancer or treatment, but BP has provided a steady stream of photos and videos that show him doing his thing, and Camilla has made some effective casual comments. It's reassuring without being revealing.

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IA- I think BP has handled things very well. “Reassuring without being revealing” is a good way of putting it.

Speaking of Charles- I liked the statement from him regarding Catherine. It was a warm, affectionate message regarding his DIL.

hel said:

I think people were wondering where she was because certain elements on social media were doing their best to conspiracy theorize in order to damage the Wales family because they hate William and Kate. You don't make a 30 series Tiktok series called Where the F* is Kate Middleton, speculating darkly about William, out of genuine and compassionate concern; you do it because you have an axe to grind or you're making a significant amount of money, or both.

Were most of the social media posts from low-information non-royal-watchers who have no idea about how the Palace works but found the speculation interesting or compelling? Yes.. I saw them myself (and ground my teeth a lot because holy hell, people who have no idea about the institution are not making useful contributions to the conversation).

But that conversation was *driven* by a cadre of social media users who've been driving the Anti-Kate/Anti-William narrative for years now. And those people would not stop spreading their poison; if the Palace had photocopied 3 million copies of her surgical and path reports and flown over London shovelling them out of the back of the plane, the cadre would spin the details ("they're fake, you can tell from this sign" "it's just an attempt to distract from the "affair") or outright lie, the same way they've been doing all along.

It's one thing to fight misinformation, which is hard enough. Fighting disinformation is effectively impossible, especially when people are highly motivated to spread it. I cannot blame Kate for not wanting to offer up her private medical details, or "proof of life" videos just to have them weaponized against her by malevolent Twitter, Insta, and Tiktok harpies.

In short, it's easy to say Kensington Palace could have done it better, but I honestly don't think it would have made much difference to the online cruelty, and it would have set toxic expectations for the future.

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Very well said. I think KP, and the Wales, have handled things as well as they could. The real problem is that the media, and quite a few members of the general populace, need to learn to have some basic respect and consideration, and maybe not pitch hissy fits because they feel entitled to have a pound of flesh.

I'm so sorry to learn of the Princess of Wales' cancer diagnosis. Very sad and terrible news. I wish her a complete recovery and hope she does not have permanent side effects from treatment.

Just found out the terrible news. I am wishing Catherine the best. And I hope that people will leave her and her family alone. This is such a shock to all.

Alisa said:

I'm not sure what George and Charlotte has access to. If they see news papers, are allowed on social media, and even news shows I think we can agree that it is a bit too late.
The things said about the Princess has been nothing short of vile and one can only hope that the children are shielded from all that.

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Even if they are able to shield their children from all those sources of information & speculation, they aren't likely able to shield their children's friends from all of it also. Chances are good that any of Louis' friends are probably too young to understand whatever discussions might be had by parents/caregivers in their presence but Charlotte is almost 9 and George is going on 11. My older niece and older nephew would have certainly picked up on any funny/strange comments by the adults in their world by age 10, my younger niece not so much (she was so naive and a bit clueless at that age and well into her teens, lol).

Having said that, Charlotte's friend circle might be a little young to pick up on that sort of chatter and then start talking about it themselves. George is a boy and boys that age aren't as prone to the gossip mill aspect of socializing, so it's possible they weren't aware of the rampant speculation all over social media or affected by it. Regardless of what they were or were not aware of, I do hope they were shielded as much as possible from all of it. It really was quite awful.

My best wishes to Catherine in her treatment and recovery. I didn't see the news until a few hours after it broke (I'm completely immersed in watching the World Figure Skating Championships and this news broke in the middle of one of the competitions). I hope that the treatment goes well and look forward to seeing her out and about again once she's ready and well.

I think it was important for William and Catherine to have the time to tell their children what it all meant, and to reassure them that she is getting the best of care and will be well. This also gives their children a little bit of emotional armour and the ability to deflect any fears that might arise if they were taken unaware and teased by other pupils.

Alisa said:

Except that the the public was told that the "personal" reason had nothing to do with his wife's health.

There is no direct quote from the couple or Kensington Palace as to the reason why the Prince canceled and we have no knowledge of when exactly the Princess received a diagnosis of cancer.

It is all just speculation on the press and people's part.

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Exactly and I find it hard to believe that the tests after the OP took one month to find out the tissue was cancerous. That is a very long time. Even if you double or triple check it.

It is interesting because initially a lot of the media were suggesting William pulled out the service because "he had just found out" about Catherine's cancer but that has now been changed to "because of Catherine's cancer" which is different.

It is normal for tissue taken during an op to be sent for testing to check for any cancerous cells. Heck often even if you have moles removed they are sent to be checked. A month (actually more as its a month from when Catherine left the hospital to the memorial service for Constantine) seems a bit too long IMO, especially when you factor in that it was in a private hospital.

As regards to their media strategy, a huge part of whether or not it was a success will depend on what William and Catherine wanted. They may have made clear their priority was Catherine's diagnosis not getting out until last night and anything else would be tolerated, thus they deem it a success.

One thing I will say is, going forward I wish both BP and KP would start offering more "on the record". What we have seen with both Charles and Catherine's diagnosis' is a statement, then briefing around it. Because of the royal household's long standing policy of not allowing remarks to be attributed to individuals on the press office alot of these are given out as "royal sources" or "sources close to Catherine" or "Kensington Palace insists..." which IMO creates some uncertainty when its common place for every Tom Dick or Harry who thinks they are a royal expert to also be called a "royal source" or "royal expert". I've seen a lot of people disagreeing with things that 'reputable' journalists like Chris Ship or BBC's Daniela Relph have said because "its not in the statement Catherine released". Whilst we don't want to reach a situation like that in Sweden or Denmark where I tend to feel their communication staff seem to overshare and overspeak making things worse and meaning there is an expectation of every little thing being commented upon and detail made public , there is a middle ground IMO

What I hope will happen is that very quietly someone with the ability to reflect well and evenly will be asked to review the past few month and suggest improvements and ways forward, to allow both royal household's to have a decent media strategy in a world where (I'd say sadly) social media isn't going away.

But that is all really irrelevant now, the most important thing is that Catherine's treatment goes well (which it will) and that she recovers quickly.

May God bless The Princess of Wales!