Prince William is coming under heavy criticism after his wife, Kate Middleton, announced she was diagnosed with cancer after weeks of speculation about her health and whereabouts.
The Princess of Wales announced in a video message on Friday that the diagnosis “came as a huge shock” and that she and William “have been doing everything we can to process and manage this privately for the sake of our young family.”
The announcement put an end to weeks of fervent speculation and rumors regarding Middleton’s wellbeing, as she had not been seen in public since Christmas.
Kensington Palace had previously attributed her absence to her recovery from a planned abdominal surgery in January. In her video, Middleton explained that at the time of her surgery, doctors believed her condition was noncancerous, and while the surgery was successful, doctors discovered evidence of cancer in further tests.
While Middleton has since received an outpouring of support and well wishes, not everyone on social media has been as quick to let Prince William off the hook and criticized him for not appearing alongside Middleton in her announcement.
“Can I also add that this proves the statics of men leaving their wives as they battle cancer? She’s sharing major news to the world, why is that bastard man not next to her holding her hand???” one X user wrote in response to the video, garnering 170,000 likes.
“HE WASN’T EVEN THERE WHEN SHE TOLD THE WORLD SHE HAD CANCER!!!! She was leaning on the BENCH,” wrote someone else in response to a Page Six report that Middleton has been leaning on Prince William since her diagnosis.
“Never marry a man who would leave you on a bench alone to talk to a camera about your cancer diagnosis,” another post that garnered more than 75,000 likes read.
“Is that why he only visited her once during her 2-week stay in the hospital?” another person said in response to the same report.
“Dear Prince William, As Husband & Future King, Am somewhat curious, as I’m sure many others are, as to why you weren’t at your Wife’s side, as Kate made her historic saddening announcement about her Cancer to the entire World?” wrote another account. “Very strange.”
Others referenced the photoshop fiasco, in which a digitally altered photo of Middleton and her children was posted on social media for Mother’s Day. The digital manipulation at the time only fueled conspiracies and led to an apology from Middleton, who attributed the edits to her being “like many amateur photographers” and “occasionally experiment[ing] with editing.”
“so they blamed the woman with cancer for doing a bad photoshop right,” one person asked.
“Not only did they handle the whole thing in the dodgiest way imaginable with the whole ‘Kate is bad at photoshop’ thing, now they are making her sit there and make an announcement alone,” one popular X post states. “Wilor plansliam can’t sit and hold her hand?”
“You mean to tell me that Prince William/Kensington Palace threw Princess Catherine under the bus in regards to the photoshop photo KNOWING she had cancer,” wrote another person. “No conspiracy theory about her whereabouts was a cruel as that.”
But not everyone has been critical of Prince William, and some argue that Middleton’s solo appearance in the video may have been her choice.
“not to defend this man but maybe it was her choice? that’s her story to tell and she’s strong enough she probably doesn’t need his hand,” one person said.
“maybe a hot take but I thought her addressing it alone was quite strong of her,” wrote another person. “I deeply appreciated that it felt like it was her talking one on one to us.”
“i don’t get what people don’t understand here,” another person wrote about the photoshop criticism. “william and kate are the boss. they would not have posted that tweet with her taking responsibility for the photoshop thing if she wasn’t okay with it!”
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