Prince William Encouraged To Speak Out on Kate's Health

Prince William is being encouraged to speak out about the Princess of Wales' recovery from surgery, as she remains behind a wall of palace secrecy, a new episode of Newsweek's The Royal Report has heard.

William has slowly resumed his public appearances since Kate's surgery on January 16 and, despite growing social media speculation and conspiracy theories spreading in the absence of regular updates, Kensington Palace has not yet released any official photograph or statement from the princess as they approach the "after Easter" estimated timeframe for her return to public duties.

The palace has fiercely protected Kate's privacy during her recovery, resulting in minimal details being shared beyond her "planned abdominal surgery" being "successful," that she is "making good progress" and continues to be doing "well."

With so little information released officially, it has fueled speculation and a desire to see any photos of the princess that might be available. This resulted in a paparazzi photograph being taken in Windsor on Monday where Kate was seen wearing dark glasses while being driven by her mother. The photo was run by U.S. gossip site, TMZ. So far, it has not been published in Britain over privacy concerns.

As her absence from the public eye continues, it is this immovable palace position on privacy that brings them into conflict with the public desire for reassurance Kate is ok, and it is where William could intercept, chief royal correspondent Jack Royston has told Royal Report listeners.

"The public have a completely different perspective on the concept of medical privacy compared to the palace one," he said. "So, for the palace, respecting Kate's privacy means leaving her to her own devices and giving her as long as the doctors suggest she needs and that's the end of it.

"To the public, letting Kate have the time off was respecting her privacy."

"I think they do genuinely have some sympathy for the palace not wanting to go into too much detail about the specifics of her diagnosis," he continued. "But most ordinary people just see no reason why the royals wouldn't want to release a picture of her."

This, he suggests, is compounded when taken into consideration with the fact that Prince William has been giving "half updates" about his wife at events since her surgery, but has not commented on how she is or her recovery.

"He mentioned her during a visit to Western Marble Arch Synagogue in London," Royston said. "So, this was a job highlighting the rise in antisemitism since the October 7 attack by Hamas in Israel and the Israeli war against Hamas in Gaza that followed, so Williams said 'both Catherine and I are extremely concerned about the rise of antisemitism.'

"Now, to the public, there's just absolutely no logical reason why William can say how Kate feels about antisemitism, but can't say how she's been finding the past six weeks since surgery."

Moving forward, Royston suggests that it may be down to William, and to some extent Kate, to re-establish contact with the public who have expressed their concerns and well wishes, noting that everyday people don't appear to be satisfied with "why it isn't possible" for updates or photos to be provided.

Newsweek approached Kensington Palace via email for comment.

James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek's royal reporter, based in London. You can find him on X (formerly Twitter) at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.

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