Are public figures entitled to privacy?
To be completely honest, yeah they are, just like you
Kate Middleton.
The Princess of Wales. Wife to William, the heir to the British monarchy. Mother of three. Former Duchess of Cambridge and Cornwall. And these are only a handful of her titles.
Recently, she’s been in the news a lot for a variety of things. But all that it proved is society’s strange incessant need for private details about public figures. Let’s break it all down.
January 17 was a big day for medicine in the Royal Family. Both Kate and King Charles have treatments announced. King Charles has an enlarged prostate that needs to be treated, and Kate had gone through a successful planned abdominal surgery. The announcement said that she wouldn’t be seen publicly until Easter.
Here’s where it gets a little messy.
Even though Kate is discharged, there aren’t any pictures. As Kate was previously photographed just hours after giving birth, the lack of photos led to public questioning.
With a sudden lack of access to information about a very picture figure, many rumors began to swirl. Jokes first started with the idea that she had some sort of plastic surgery, most claiming a Brazilian Butt Lift, and that’s why her recovery time was longer.
Which turned into jokes that she was actually part of the Willy Wonka Experience in Glasgow that went viral for how much of a disaster it was. Others were claiming that she was on the television show the Masked Singer and that’s why she was out of the public eye.
Once an official photo was released of Kate and her children with obvious editing mistakes, the theories took a different path.
Some were claiming that she was missing because her husband was physically abusive with her and she was severely injured. Others were claiming that she was in a coma and abdominal surgery was just a cover-up. Still others started claiming that she was in recovery for an eating disorder. Many people thought that she was getting a divorce from William. A few claimed that William had a mistress who he got pregnant.
Some theories were incredibly outlandish, like saying she was kidnapped by Russians. Or the theory that she was somehow dating Pete Davidson because he also hadn’t been photographed since December, just like Kate.
In truth, after her surgery, her doctors found that there were cancerous cells in whatever had been in her abdomen. The details of her surgery haven’t been shared. She’s been out of the public eye because she’s been taking preventative chemotherapy. What’s taken the most time is recovery, starting the treatment, and telling her three kids about what’s going on.
People feel entitled to personal information about the lives of public figures whether they be celebrities or members of the Royal Family. When, in reality, there is no reason they should be receiving this information. For the most part, society as a whole does not need or deserve to know every detail of someone’s life simply because they’re a public figure.
When Kate finally revealed what was going on, she asked for privacy and space; two things she wasn’t given. As soon as people realized that something was happening and they didn’t know what, they started trying to theorize which led to very hurtful and misleading things that many people may now wrongly see as fact.
Kate, who is trying to explain to her children that she’s going through chemotherapy, also now has to be aware that a large portion of the internet was claiming that her husband got his mistress pregnant. People who were telling jokes are now scrambling to apologize.
The public were demanding answers from a woman who just had surgery and was going through chemotherapy. Answers that they didn’t actually need or deserve.
Public figures do not owe us anything of the sort. Kate didn’t owe anyone anything about what was going on with her private medical information. She had to publicly share a video explaining what happened and even then, people online are trying to tear that video apart to find glitches and details that might say the video is fake.
If you deserve privacy during your worst moments, so does Kate Middleton.
