On March 20, a spokesman for the Information Commissioner’s Office—a U.K. watchdog agency for data protection issues—announced public news about something extremely private. A report had been filed against an employee at the London Clinic. It alleged they attempted to access the personal health records of Kate Middleton.
Over two months earlier, the Princess of Wales underwent a planned abdominal surgery at the Marylebone hospital. It was a clandestine operation, both literally and figuratively: Kensington Palace informed the public after it happened and noted she wouldn’t be making a public appearance until after Easter. “The Princess of Wales appreciates the interest this statement will generate,” a representative wrote at the time. “She hopes that the public will understand her desire to maintain as much normalcy for her children as possible.” On January 29, they announced she had left the hospital.
There was a deep hunger for more information from the public, and yet a notable lack of said information. So social media conspiracy theories about her health and whereabouts filled the void—especially after her husband, Prince William, abruptly pulled out of the memorial service for his godfather King Constantine of Greece without explanation. While many of the posts were humorous (some joked she was secretly at the failed Willy Wonka Experience in Glasgow) others were sinister, even salacious, in their content. Grainy paparazzi photos of the Princess of Wales driving in a car with her mother, Carole Middleton, did little to quell the noise.
Then, it reached a fever pitch. On March 11, the Wales family released a photo with Middleton and her three children for Mother’s Day in the U.K. It featured several glaring Photoshop manipulations. A day later, the AP issued a kill order for the photo and it was removed from news outlets like The New York Times. Suddenly, those fringe “Where’s Kate” internet rumors were catapulted into the mainstream. Everyone, everywhere, couldn’t help wondering what on earth was going on with Kate Middleton. And within that time frame, it seems an employee at the London Clinic might have attempted something illegal to find out.
Let’s get this out of the way: Kate Middleton works for the Crown, a taxpayer-funded institution. Therefore, a certain amount of transparency about her life is expected and valid. Yet the level of scrutiny over her health has become akin to a political world leader, despite, frankly, having far fewer and far less important responsibilities. Sure, President Biden releases in-depth results of his physical, but he also has access to the nuclear codes.