Despite the increasingly wild theories about the whereabouts of Catherine, Princess of Wales, the reality is she appears in good enough health to pop down to her local shops.
The British tabloids have published new images of the Prince and Princess of Wales a week after the furore over an edited photograph turned into a public relations nightmare for Kensington Palace.
The video footage of the royal couple is the first time the princess has been filmed in public since attending a Christmas Day service, and undergoing abdominal surgery in January.
“Incredibly, woman goes to shop is breaking news,” says ABC royal commentator, Juliet Rieden.
So here’s how the royal shopping trip was reported, and why it briefly fuelled further online speculation.
The Sun reported it first â without any images
William and Kate’s visit to the Windsor Farm Store was first reported by British tabloid The Sun on Monday, March 18, 2024.
“KATE OUTDOORS” the headline proclaimed, adding “first public trip ends web rumours.”
But while the newspaper reported the princess looked “happy and well” it had no news images of the royal couple’s outing beyond the palace walls.
Instead, the tabloid paired the report with a file image of the princess from last September when she visited Kent to promote her Shaping Us campaign on early childhood.
Of course, it fuelled more speculation.
“Another Kate Middleton sighting? Unedited pics or it didn’t happen,” the Los Angeles Times wrote.
“Did Kate Middleton Really Go Grocery Shopping This Weekend?” The Cut speculated, adding The Sun’s report was “suspiciously cheery.”
“Did William and Kate Really Visit The Windsor Fam Shop? Palace â And Store â Are Mum,” Forbes wrote.
But The Sun were quick to end the speculation.
Video emerges from a fellow farm shopper
The next day, the farm visit was again front page fodder with both The Sun and American tabloid TMZ obtaining the same clip of the Prince and Princess of Wales at the Windsor Farm Shop.
In the short clip, William and Kate are seen talking and smiling as they walk out of the shop, each carrying a bag.
“Great to see you again, Kate,” The Sun newspaper read, alongside the image of the princess wearing leggings and a black top.
The footage was recorded by Nelson Silva, who The Sun reports “was shopping for steak when he spotted Kate and William in the bread aisle.”
“I went to my car and as they came out of the shop I just filmed them. I think they walked out through a gate out of the grounds. They just vanished and I didn’t see a car,” he told The Sun.
It’s the first video footage of the princess since her abdominal surgery in January â a long lens paparazzi photo of Kate in a car with her mother didn’t quell internet rumours, and the Mother’s Day photo backfired hugely.
The Sun â a usually pro-royal family publication â said that experts had decried the video as “a perfect answer to trolls.”
It said that William, the heir to the throne, and Kate were also present at a sports event on Sunday in which their three children â George, Charlotte and Louis â took part.
The Daily Mail, another British tabloid, also ran the fresh imagery on its front page with the headline “the image the world has been waiting to see.”
The publication, which is often supportive of the royals, lauded the outing as “an image that will silence the conspiracy theorists.”
A ‘lowkey’ confirmation that Kate is fine
Juliet Rieden, the ABC’s royal commentator, says the tabloids “don’t run paparazzi content but they do run pictures taken by members of the public.”
“Often members of the public at engagements are the ones that get the closest shots, to be honest,” she says.
Ms Rieden says the fact the royal couple went to a public place and were filmed by bystanders doesn’t amount to an invasion of privacy.
“She’s at her local shop. I’m sure she went there with the expectation that someone would see her,” Ms Rieden says.
“I think we’re right to be suspicious of them choosing to make this trip to the shop, and I don’t mean suspicious in that there’s anything untoward.
“But we’re right to think that maybe they’ve done it to show that Kate is fine in a very lowkey way that doesn’t involve media, and that doesn’t involve something that has been organised and arranged and therefore has a little bit of a sense of truth to it.”
So was this a publicity move?
“Who knows. We will never know. Kensington Palace is certainly not commenting on that,” Ms Rieden says.
“But on face value, it looks like a couple going to their local shop.
“And strangely, that is a front page news story now.”
ABC/AFP