Kate Middleton has always been something of a paradox. She was a relatively private person even before she married Prince William, the future King of England. Now, she remains private, but her desire to stay out of the public eye often clashes with the fact that cameras are constantly following her every move.
That paradox is in very high effect now that Kate is on the mend. She was recently admitted to the hospital for abdominal surgery, but the unexpected length of her recovery time and relative radio silence have had people speculating that something more serious is going on. There are plenty of other reasons to worry about Kate…keep reading to discover the main reasons why we’re freaking out about what’s going to happen to her!
Kate’s surprising health revelation
The global concerns about Kate date back to January of this year. That’s when Kensington Palace told the world that Kate Middleton would be admitted to the hospital in order to facilitate a planned surgical procedure involving her abdomen.
That sounds innocuous enough, but from the beginning, Kate has refused to disclose what the surgery was for. This, combined with the wildly long recovery time (more on this in a minute), led to endless amounts of online speculation about what was really going on. Just what secrets is the monarchy trying to keep from us, and how will this affect England as a whole?
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Worldwide surprise over her recovery time
Just how long was Kate Middleton’s recovery time after her abdominal surgery? That’s something of a trick question: when it comes to how long she spent in the hospital, Kate only had to spend 10-14 days there. After getting released, she was set to continue recovering at home, and most people assumed that the recovery from a planned surgical procedure and brief hospital stay would be swift.
However, Kensington Palace made it clear that Kate was going to be canceling all of her public appearances until Easter. That revelation alone caused major rumors about her health because of a simple implication: whatever surgery Kate had was going to knock her out of commission for several months. After that revelation, people couldn’t help but wonder what “abdomen surgery” would knock the future Queen of England out for so many months.
Recovery could make things worse, not better
It’s entirely possible Kate Middleton is just being coy about some relatively straightforward health diagnosis. Arguably, the one thing worse than causing all this speculation about what she was getting surgery for is giving media vultures enough information about her health to fuel future headlines about her being sick or even dying.
No matter what her current health is really like, though, there’s a chance that the thing that’s supposed to make her better could actually make her worse. As Harry and Meghan can attest, the stress of media attention can take both an emotional and physical toll on a person. If Kate really has long months ahead of her with nothing to do but read online speculations about her being in terrible health, it might cause enough stress to sabotage her recovery and make her feel that much worse.
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Will Kate be pressured to cut her recovery short?
The other possible issue with Kate Middleton’s recovery is that she might end up cutting it short. She’s currently in something of a no-win scenario: the longer she focuses on recovery and stays out of the public eye, the more the media will scrutinize her health and speculate that she must be on death’s door.
In comparison, she could always cut her recovery short, but that could end up making her just as sick as people claim. Throw in the idea that everyone in her life is offering different kinds of advice and everything about Kate’s recovery may have an unintentionally negative effect on her ability to heal.
William’s surprise schedule cancellation
As befits the future King of England, Prince William has mostly perfected the whole “stiff upper lip” thing. Because of that, we never expected him to make any public statements about Kate’s health. Nonetheless, some of William’s actions speak louder than words, and one of William’s more surprising recent actions may give us a clue about Kate’s health.
On February 27, William canceled his planned appearance at the memorial for King Constantine of Greece due to a “personal matter” he needed help with. Keep in mind that Constantine was William’s godfather and it’s clear that he wouldn’t have canceled his appearance for no reason. This caused more speculation that Kate’s health had taken a turn for the worse and that William needed to go home and take care of her.
Weirdly enough, speculation about Kate’s health wouldn’t be so widespread if Charles hadn’t been admitted to the hospital around the same time. Since then, we have learned that Charles has been diagnosed with cancer and that he is undergoing treatments. If the King can be so open about a cancer diagnosis, we can’t help but wonder how bad Kate’s own diagnosis and health must be to make her so secretive.
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