At this time last year, rumors were swirling about Kate Middleton's disappearance from royal life after recovering from a planned January 2024 abdominal surgery. The theories ranged from plausible to absolutely wild—and on March 10, 2024, the Princess of Wales broke cover to share a sweet family photo celebrating Mother's Day in the U.K. What happened next would send the rumor mill into complete overdrive—and according to one royal expert, the situation deeply impacted Prince William and Princess Kate.
The photo featuring the Princess of Wales sitting in a chair surrounded by Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis was widely received as an adorable family snapshot at first—the first official photo of Kate to be released that year. But eagle-eyed fans noticed several details of the pic that showed it had been altered, such a missing portion of Princess Charlotte's sleeve and several blurred areas. The backlash caused the mom of three—who we now know was grappling with a new cancer diagnosis at the time—to issue an apology the next day.
"Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing," the Princess of Wales shared on X. "I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused. I hope everyone celebrating had a very happy Mother's Day."
"There was a real sense then that they felt bruised by it," royal biographer Robert Hardman told People. While the Princess of Wales simply edited her photo to look its best—like most social media users do—Hardman shared, "It was treated like some great fraud."
Despite her clarification, the damage was done. Photo agencies including the Associated Press pulled the photo on grounds of manipulation, causing the conspiracy theories about her whereabouts to reach a fever pitch. A friend of the princess was reported as saying that Kate was "deeply upset" over the controversy caused by an "innocent family photograph," per the Mirror.
Many fans wondered if the public would ever see a photo of the Wales children on social media again, given how strong the backlash was at the time.
On March 22, 2024—less than two weeks later—the Princess of Wales released a video on social media revealing that she'd been diagnosed with cancer. Hardman told People, "She knew she had the disease, but she couldn’t talk about it because she wanted to wait until the school holidays. Meanwhile, people were saying horrible things online."
"It was like being on a roller coaster for them…undergoing chemotherapy and trying to protect your children," Queen Elizabeth's former press secretary Ailsa Anderson added. "It was like being in the middle of a tornado and not knowing when it was going to calm down."
Fortunately, the Prince and Princess of Wales weathered the storm that was 2024, with Kate announcing she had completed chemotherapy in September and in January 2025, revealing that she was in remission.
"I would say 2025, I'm sure everyone just hopes that it will be a year of resetting, or it'll be the year of reset," Hardman told Marie Claire earlier this year.
