Kate Middleton Announces Cancer Diagnosis

For the last few months, Kate Middleton, wife of Prince William and the Princess of Wales, has been recovering from what was, until today, an undisclosed medical condition. She, William, and the rest of the British Royal Family kept the details of her illness as private as they could; expectedly, this led to a lot of speculation from the British tabloids and people online. Rumors of plastic surgery, various cover-ups, and divorce because of infidelity on William’s part circled, and while none of it was verified (because it wasn’t true), more sensational stories cropped up seemingly every day. (To be fair, that doctored picture probably didn’t help matters.) Today, Kate released a video in which she explained what’s been going on, and it should make a lot of people feel ashamed of themselves. You can see it below:

Kate Middleton has cancer. Are the rumor-mongers proud of themselves now? Do they think they made it easier for a family with young children to handle a serious illness? Those are rhetorical questions, of course; I know they don’t care. If they did, they’d have stopped this kind of thing after William’s mother, Princess Diana, died in the 90s. But they love picking at the Royals, and for some reason, they focus on the ones who seem the nicest. William and Kate don’t bother anyone, at least not that I’ve seen; they mostly keep to themselves and try to raise their children in private, outside of the public appearances that come with being monarchs. They’re not in everybody’s face like William’s brother, Harry, and his wife, Meghan Markle, who refuse to go away for five whole minutes. But maybe that’s the difference; Harry and Meghan love the limelight, so the press doesn’t have to work to get a story on them. But William and Kate are more reserved and withdrawn, so they have to be poked with a stick for a story.

That video is in keeping with how they conduct themselves. Kate never asks for sympathy, never displays the anger she has every right to feel. She’s grateful to those who were kind to her, and she extends her best wishes to others who have cancer, and I think everyone on Earth at least knows someone who’s had it, and likely lost someone to it. It’s a dignified, human message, and it’s how we’d all like to think we’d act in her position. Her request that she and her family be left alone will almost certainly go unheeded, but I think most normal people will appreciate it. It’s sad, but it’s something that can bring us closer to a person we’ll likely never meet and, for many reasons, are disconnected from, no matter where we live. (It always annoys me when people scoff at Americans’ fascination with the Royal Family, as if finding another country’s culture interesting means we want to undo the Revolutionary War or something. And now that Harry and Meghan have inflicted themselves on us, we’ve got skin in the game, whether they’re official royalty or not.) That Kate used it in such a way speaks highly of her.

And I know she was essentially forced into this. The doctored picture was a blunder, but it clearly came from a desire to get the circling vultures to leave her and her family alone. Kate’s video was a last resort, and I’m sure it was difficult, but it turned out to be the best thing she could have done. It not only humanizes her and takes the wind out of the people who’ve been dragging her family through the mud, but it can maybe help others, if only in a small way. That’s what someone in that position can do at their best. I don’t know much about Kate’s particular condition, so I can’t speak with any authority on what her family is going through or what the coming months and years will be like. But I’ve lost people close to me to cancer, and the word itself is enough to stop your breath. I wish Kate’s family all the best, and I hope this ends up being a footnote in a long, happy life for her.