Kate Middleton Conspiracy Theorists Have Lost America

Celebrities who joked about Kate Middleton being "missing" prior to her cancer announcement should apologize, almost two thirds of Americans believe.

Stephen Colbert, Andy Cohen and Kim Kardashian were among those to join in the social media trend before Kate's shock revelation that she had been undergoing chemotherapy.

Exclusive polling for Newsweek by Redfield & Wilton shows 59 percent of U.S. adults felt public figures and famous names who made jokes about the issue before the announcement should now say sorry.

This compares to 9 percent who disagreed, 24 percent who neither agreed nor disagreed and 10 percent who did not know. The data is based on a representative sample of 4,000 U.S. adults polled in April.

In a further boost to the Princess of Wales, 52 percent felt the palace should not release more information about her cancer diagnosis compared to 21 who felt they should and 28 percent who did not know.

Kate had abdominal surgery on January 16, after which Kensington Palace said she would be off work until after Easter.

However, when no pictures or videos were released, a major viral trend on X, formerly Twitter, emerged suggesting Kate was "missing."

This led to increasingly wild conspiracy theories about her absence from public life which were then turbo charged by a Mother's Day picture of the princess and her children released by the palace which showed signs of extensive editing.

Kate acknowledged editing the picture and apologized. When the conspiracy theories continued to escalate she announced that her health problem had been subsequently diagnosed as cancer.

The royals have still not revealed Kate's original diagnosis, nor the type with which she was diagnosed. Her announcement said she was undergoing preventative chemotherapy.

Following her emotional video message, there was a backlash against celebrities who took part in the trend, including Stephen Colbert, who had made jokes about Prince William having an affair.

The comedian used a segment on The Late Show to reference rumors that dated back to 2019 and had been denied by the palace at the time.

After Kate's announcement, he stopped short of a full apology, but acknowledged the skit had breached his own personal ethical code.

"For the last six weeks to two months, everybody has been talking about the mystery of Kate Middleton's disappearance from public life, and two weeks ago we did some jokes about that mystery and all the attendant froo-frah in the reporting about that.

"When I made those jokes, that upset some people and, even before her diagnosis was revealed, and I can understand that.

"I mean, a lot of my jokes have upset people in the past, and I'm sure some of my jokes will upset people in the future. But, there's a standard that I try to hold myself to, and that is I do not make light of somebody else's tragedy.

"I and everyone here at The Late Show would like to extend our well wishes and heartfelt hope that her recovery is swift and thorough," he added.

British tabloid The Sun published a video of William and Kate visiting Windsor Farm Shop, near their home, leading to conspiracy theories that the footage was faked.

Andy Cohen posted "that ain't Kate" on social media but later acknowledged his mistake during his Radio Andy show on SiriusXM 102: "I just want to say I am heartbroken by the news about Princess Kate.

"I think someone on Sky News called me a 'numpty' during that whole conversation and they were right and of course I wish I had kept my mouth shut."

Kim Kardashian had written "on my way to go find Kate" in a jokey Instagram post and then faced calls for an apology on social media and from British newspapers.

In a sign of how far the discussion of Kate's health has spread through America, 77 percent had heard at least something about the issue. Of those, 23 percent were very familiar, 26 percent were fairly familiar and 28 percent were slightly familiar with the details.

And 45 percent felt she handled the announcement well, while 8 percent felt she handled it badly and 35 percent answered neither well nor badly. Eleven percent did not know.

Meanwhile, 27 percent felt the media handled the story respectfully compared to 24 percent who felt the coverage was disrespectful. A further 26 percent felt news stories were neither respectful nor disrespectful and 24 percent did not know.

Figures have been rounded to the nearest whole number.

Jack Royston is Newsweek's chief royal correspondent based in London. You can find him on X, formerly Twitter, at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.

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