The sovereign, aged 75, must undergo an operation for a prostate problem. Her 42-year-old daughter-in-law was hospitalized for abdominal surgery. These announcements made on Wednesday are widely commented on.
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The health of the “royals” worries their subjects. The British royal family made two resounding announcements on Wednesday January 17 concerning King Charles III and Princess Kate. Buckingham Palace announced that the 75-year-old monarch was due to undergo a hospital procedure the week of January 22 due to benign prostatic hypertrophy. A little earlier, Kensington Palace revealed for its part that Princess Kate, 42 years old, wife of Prince William, eldest son of the sovereign and first in the order of succession, was hospitalized for at least 10 days at London after an abdominal operation, which forced her to suspend her obligations until the end of March.
These two hospitalizations will upset the British crown’s program for several months. In a country still very attached to its sovereign, despite a drop in the polls (45% positive sentiment, according to the latest YouGov survey), these two announcements, occurring in quick succession, captivated the British press. From tabloids to general dailies, franceinfo does a press review.
The “fear” of the tabloids in the face of an “upheaval”
The successful British dailies, renowned for their often sensational headlines, did not miss a beat of the announcements. For the Sunthe royal family is in full swing “upheaval”destabilized by Kate’s long expected convalescence. “Prince William will reduce his official duties to take care of his children”says the newspaper.
“Let’s pray that they are both well”headlined the front page on Thursday morning, Daily Mail, another major tabloid in the country. This “double scare” concerning the “royals”, which caused a “shock”also gave rise to around ten articles on the newspaper’s website, dealing with the seriousness of an enlarged prostate, from which the sovereign suffers, or even the interim provided by Queen Camilla, while her husband recovers from her intervention.
Questions about Kate’s state of health
It’s not just the tabloids that are closely following these two hospital admissions. The newspaper The Independent and the BBC, in particular, report live the comings and goings of the royal family at the London Clinic, a private establishment where Princess Kate is treated. But few details have filtered out regarding this operation on the mother’s abdomen.
On the internet, British searches for the Princess of Wales have quadrupled since Wednesday, according to Google. Many Internet users wonder if Kate could have suffered “a hysterectomy” or “an operation for cancer”, as shown by the most used keywords. During her two pregnancies, the princess suffered from extreme nausea, as the BBC recalled, enough to fuel the rumors.
The British media currently have no details to provide to their worried readers, and are scrutinizing, like the Telegraph, photos taken with a telephoto lens of Prince William, who visited his wife on Thursday morning. The only information released by the monarchy: it is not cancer.
The observation of an evolution in communication
In terms of analyses, that of Guardianpublished Thursday, emphasizes that these “two royal health announcements in one day show a different approach” of the royal family since the death of Queen Elizabeth II on September 8, 2022. During the last years of her life, the discretion of the sovereign’s health had given rise to much speculation, recalls the daily, but also “criticism on the culture of secrecy” dear to Buckingham Palace.
Less laconic than in the past, the royal family’s press releases were also accompanied by some details and justifications, analyzes the newspaper. In its announcement, Buckingham Palace sought to be reassuring and, for example, argued that the procedure awaiting King Charles affects “thousands of men every year”.