Before we begin, this isn’t an article about the Princess of Wales, nor is this article about her private medical information.

Instead, this is a call to arms. Because, honestly, we need to unpick what has been going on with everyone but Princess Catherine over the last 10 weeks.

On Friday (22 March) the Princess of Wales released a video statement revealing she has received a cancer diagnosis. This came after weeks of frenzied speculation by social media users and media outlets on the reason for her leave of absence from public duty. She described the diagnosis as a “huge shock”, and said that her family have experienced “an incredibly tough couple of months”.

Following what quickly became a lesson in how we dehumanise those in the public eye (and how we find it all too easy to take our speculation to the faceless abyss of social media), an outpouring of shock and support flooded the online discourse. Commenters even began to retract their previous statements now her private matters no longer appeared gag-worthy material.

In one high-profile retraction, Blake Lively apologised on her Instagram Stories for previously making light of the Prince and Princess of Wales’ doctored Mother’s Day image, saying that a now-deleted post on her Betty Buzz business account “around the ‘Photoshop fails frenzy’” has left her “mortified” upon her learning of Princess Catherine’s cancer diagnosis. Blake Lively wrote “I’m sorry”, before adding “Sending love and well wishes to all, always”.

Having ranged from AI-generated images and body double allegations to ‘blink twice if you need help’ ‘jokes’ and Kate-gate memes that spawned by the second, the rumour mill has now abruptly halted.

But before the news cycle moves on and those responsible write off their speculation as ‘jokes’ that just got out of hand, let’s reflect – because this is a reminder that as a woman in 2024, the world (online and offline) is still a sinister place to exist. 

When it was first announced in a statement that Kate would be stepping back from public duty for an unspecified period of time following a planned abdominal surgery in January, social media users commented in their droves to ‘joke’ that the Princess may have been recuperating following cosmetic surgery.

From a ‘BBL’ to a ‘tummy tuck’, the procedures stacked up. Would this discourse have played out had it been the Prince on an absence of leave? The answer is no.

Such commentary is inherently misogynistic, with a pervading derogatory assumption that women reach a societally-prescribed milestone where cosmetic surgery must be on the table. 

Other allegations that surfaced online included that the Princess of Wales must have been ‘kidnapped’, or that she was in a medically-induced coma. Both play into the harmful  ‘damsel in distress’ narrative trope, which has historically stripped women of power and control.

This kind of allegation also served to pressure a woman into giving up the last element of control she had – the ability to choose when to tell the public of her cancer diagnosis. As Sarah Weinman writes in her essay for The Cut, “Cancer is a wily beast, ready to strike on its own schedule, shattering the illusion of recovery and control. Is it any wonder, then, that Catherine wanted to hold on to it?”. 

After Piers Morgan speculated on whether Princess Catherine could have had a ‘nervous breakdown’ during TMZ’s controversial Where is Kate Middleton? documentary earlier this month, the rumour mill swirled with social media allegations that the Princess could be suffering a mental health crisis.

Morgan said, “I think the pressure on Kate has been utterly unbearable for a long time. It wouldn’t shock me if she has had some kind of breakdown. They’ve now had a major health crisis and she’s trying to bring up three young kids in a goldfish bowl of the Royal family. You put all that together – that’s a lot for any young woman to deal with.”

Here, we see the inherently misogynistic trope of the ‘hysterical woman’ – an attempt to invalidate a woman’s personal experiences, thoughts and feelings. In Morgan’s eyes, Princess Catherine would be the ‘supporting role’ to William’s ‘King’, and speculating that she may not be able to ‘cope’ with the idea of becoming Queen positions her as secondary to her husband. 

When Princess Catherine was spotted on a trip out to a local farm shop in Windsor on 16 March, weeks after the speculation surrounding her health began, a fresh wave of allegations surfaced online that a ‘body double’ must have been used.

This examination over grainy footage uncovers something a whole lot more sinister and is very reminiscent of a feeling any woman will understand: how society polices, politicises and scrutinises women’s bodies as we navigate the world. Such speculation can feel suffocating.

There have been, and continue to be, waves of commentary on how the media scrutinised Princess Diana, with harmful narratives and invasive paparazzo techniques. But back then, in the 90s, public speculation was confined to private conversation around the dinner table.

Now, we exist in an age where the noise of social media entirely eclipses that of the media, stripping a woman of her autonomy and privacy, so she feels she has to tell the world about an intensely private and personal medical diagnosis, perhaps before she is ready to.

Allegation by allegation, these individual moments of speculation – whether intended with humour or malice – are moments of micro-misogyny that paint a vile portrait of how society continues to attack womanhood.

As Princess Catherine addressed the faceless camera to reveal her cancer diagnosis and put an end to the frenzied speculation of the last few weeks, she sat alone. She powerfully and bravely reclaimed her narrative after weeks of being hounded by misogyny. Let’s hope she now gets the privacy she deserves to heal – and that, as a society, we realise that words matter.