When will he come back Kate Middleton in public? Will he resume his commitments as before, or gradually? These are the questions that the tabloids have been asking themselves in recent days and which are nothing more than a variation on the theme of the main question, to which everyone has been looking for an answer for months: how is Kate really doing? Unfortunately there are no official answers yet. Just hypotheses. After her appearance at Trooping The Colour, the Princess of Wales remained silent again. She made us feel her presence through the latest photos taken of William and her children and published on social media, but a return to work still seems far away. Furthermore, some media believe that the health of the entire monarchy depends on her health and that at the moment there is only one word to describe them both: uncertainty.
“At the right time”
When the British and international public saw Kate again at Trooping The Color on 15 June, hopes of an imminent return of the princess to his usual life, to his official duties. Unfortunately this was not the case. The King’s Birthday Parade may have been a first attempt at a return to work, but there was still a long way to go. We still have to wait, but sources guarantee that we will see the future Queen again in the near future: “We have made it clear that Kate now needs space and privacy to heal.”a Palazzo spokesperson told Us Weekly in early June 2024. “(The princess) will return to work when she has the doctors’ permission.” The news, always circulated in Us Magazine, according to which Kate “she may never return to the role people saw her in before”would be “incorrect and false”another insider told Harper’s Bazaar. “There is no information on Kate’s return, because right now all the attention is 100% on her health…When the time is right (Kate) will resume her work.”
Behind the scenes (for now)
Kate stepped away to think about her recovery and the treatments she is undergoing. Her presence, however, is palpable through her great passion: her photography. The same one that, last March, literally catapulted her into the eye of the media storm due to the unfortunate retouched shot that portrays her together with her children. A mistake that the princess was able to remedy in the most correct and intelligent way: by taking other public photos (apparently without suspicious changes) of her family. Both immortalize Prince William and the little princes George, Charlotte and Louis on a beach in Norfolk. The first in chronological order, very intense, is dedicated to Father’s Day. The heir to the throne and his children have their backs turned and look at the sea. The second, decidedly more light-hearted, films William and the children while they are jumping, cheerful and smiling. Beyond the subjects’ body language, the photos seem to suggest a message from Kate: despite everything, the princess is there and fights, the family remains united and tries to be calm, knowing that one day everything, perhaps, will return to normal.
The Wimbledon hypothesis
For now it is impossible to be more precise about Kate’s next appearance. The hypotheses of the newspapers, however, converge on an event that is now upon us: Wimbledon. The tournament, Elle magazine reminds us, will be held from 1 to 14 July 2024. It could be a perfect opportunity to see the princess again, who has also been patron of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club since 2016. After all, Kate herself, in the message in which he announced his presence at Trooping The Colour, last June 14, he stated: “I hope to take part in some commitments during the summer, even though I know I’m not out of the woods yet.”
“We won’t see her again for months”
A little more pessimistic is the journalist Antonio Caprarica, who claims that the return of Kate is not that close. In connection with Mattino 4 Caprarica stated: “It must be said that the princess is still in the midst of the disease and is facing it every day. Cures can be more devastating than disease due to the effects they can produce. But I must say that you demonstrated a stoicism that the English have always recognized in the late Queen Elizabeth and which they find today in her granddaughter-in-law.”. The journalist added: “Kate is a woman who is facing evil and who showed up in public anyway because her people wanted to see her. This does not mean that everything is over and that she will be able to take part in other events soon.” Finally the hypothesis: “I dare to predict that we won’t see her again before the autumn and that’s also her right. Now it’s a season of rest for the Royals. In general, the summer season always is. Trooping The Color was an exception, but Buckingham Palace canceled all public engagements until July 4, which is the date of the general election in Great Britain. So there is this aspect of withdrawal in front of politics, then there is the summer. They will be useful and precious months for Kate, to try to recover her health. So I wouldn’t dare to make any predictions about the princess’s imminent appearance on the public scene.”
“How fragile is the monarchy?”
The current situation involving the Princess is uncertain and the British, together with international public opinion, must learn to live with this insecurity. It’s not easy, also because Kate is one of the most loved and strongest characters in the monarchy. “Without Catherine”the former private secretary of America told Vanity Fair Lady DianaPatrick Jephson, “It all seems rather bland. The future of the monarchy is William and Catherine and, as we know from any cursory study of the British royal family, it is women who put on the show, who go out there and make things happen.”. Jephson tried to answer a question that almost all of us are asking: “How fragile is the monarchy? She is as fragile as Catherine is and we don’t know that at the moment.” The former private secretary then took things further: “Without her, the institution would certainly be a shadow of its former self.” and explained: “Given the drastic reduction in ranks among the Windsors she is undoubtedly the crown’s best hope. She combines duty and beauty with an intense vulnerability, second only to that of Prince William’s mother.”
“He wants Kate back in his life”
There would be another person looking forward to seeing Kate again: the Prince Harry. “It was painful for Harry to see the whole family gathered for Trooping the Colour”a source told Closer. “He would have loved to be there. Even just to congratulate and support Kate in person on what must have been an incredibly difficult day for her. Harry was particularly upset and emotional when he saw the pictures of Kate.” it’s still: “He has been so worried about her since he received the news of her condition. Although he has managed to get in touch with her on a few occasions, it doesn’t happen as often as he would like. He could see her expression: her stoic, her courageous,… she had the eyes of the world on her, it was a considerable pressure. The fact that (Harry) had to watch (the parade) from 6,000 miles away made him sad… he would love to have (Kate) and the rest of her family back in her life properly.”. Assuming this is the case, it does not necessarily mean that the princess is interested in resuming the dialogue with Harry where it was interrupted with Megxit. But above all, that there is still time and possibility to renew the threads of friendship.
Kate would be “wound” from the revelations of his brother-in-law in the memoir “Spare” and now he would have something else to think about: therapies, healing, family and the return to the service of that Crown to which he chose to dedicate his existence.