Laurence Dollimore
SPANISH publications are continuing to weigh in on the dramatic events engulfing the British Royal Family.
In January, it was revealed that the Princess of Wales had undergone an abdominal surgery. A month later, King Charles revealed he had been diagnosed with cancer – without giving further details.
This month, Kate Middleton shared a Mother’s Day photo of herself and her and William’s three children, that was determined to have been doctored or retouched.
Kate, who has not been seen in public since her surgery announcement, said she had edited the photo herself, but the bizarre situation has sent rumour mills spinning.
READ MORE: Are Kate and Wills on the rocks? Rumours swirl in Spain as commentators react
Vanity Fair España said the series of episodes have ‘exposed the fragility’ of the British monarchy.
A column by journalist Javi Sanchez reads: “Everything has blown up in just a few weeks, with a mix of illnesses and absences that have led to an unstoppable credibility crisis, which threatens to take away the fragile logos of his (Charles’s) reign.”
Recalling what happened to Princess Diana, he added: “It has left a sick princess, Kate Middleton, at the feet of public opinion, in a painful reminder of the worst crisis (and the worst management) of the British monarchy in the last 50 years… That of Diana and that insane, incorrigible royal custom of making the victims guilty.”
He went on to criticize the palace courtiers for allowing Kate to edit the photo and send it out herself without checking over it for errors. He suggested this exposed serious institutional problems at the heart of Kensington Palace.
Elsewhere, the conservative newspaper El Mundo blasted Prince William for “failing his first litmus test” as heir to the throne.
In a column, Eduardo Alvarez wrote: “The fact that he is failing his first great litmus test as heir is not going to help him advance on the journey.
“Because the reputational and image crisis that is shaking the British Monarchy these days, with photoshopgate as the tip of the iceberg, has as its designated protagonist Kate, the one labeled until now as a perfect princess, but in reality, the person most responsible is him (William), who in months so hard for the institution, he is proving incapable of measuring up as a future king.”
He went on to say that it was “naive and absurd” to expect the public to know nothing of Kate for more than three months, and to be left in the dark on an issues “as important as the heir’s wife’s health”.
