Kate Middleton hits back at online rumors and posts new photo with kids

Kate breaks cover for Mother’s Day

Kate Middleton dramatically issued a statement accompanied by a new photo on Sunday, to mark Mother’s Day in the UK. Princess Kate, 42, smiled in a new photo surrounded by her three children, Prince George, Prince Louis and Princess Charlotte. The photograph was taken by her husband, Prince William.

The photograph, which an official source told The Daily Beast was taken in Windsor in recent days, was posted on social media channels on Sunday morning with a message that read: “Thank you for your kind wishes and continued support during the last two months. Wishing you all a Happy Mother’s Day, C.”

The C stands for Catherine and royals often use their first initial to indicate a message written by them personally.

It was his first public comment of any kind since undergoing unspecified abdominal surgery in January. The palace will hope the new look will respond to critics who have said the blackout of news about the Princess of Wales has fueled toxic online speculation about her health.

Kate was photographed by paparazzi driving with her mother last week, and later that week the Ministry of Defense “was quick” to say she would attend the Trooping the Color ceremony in June.

Although The Daily Beast understands that Kate intends to be at the ceremony, her team wants to announce her presence at a time of their choosing.

Gary Goldsmith, Kate’s uncle, who participated in the reality show Big Brother, gave insight into her health last week, saying: “I spoke to her mother, my sister, she is getting the best care in the world… all the family is over.” It’s putting the cars around and taking care of the family before anything else. They issued a statement and simply said: ‘She is taking some time to recover and she will see you at Easter.’”

King Charles also posted a photo of himself with his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, at a polo match.

If you’re panicking because you forgot a card, relax: Mother’s Day in the United States is May 12.

Harry and Meghan visit the family of the Uvalde shooting

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on Saturday visited the family of Irma Garcia, a school teacher who died in the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, where 21 people (two teachers and 19 children) were killed by a gunman on May 24, 2022. Days later, Irma’s husband, Joe Garcia, died of a heart attack.

Irma García’s nephew, John Martínez, he told CNN Harry and Meghan have stayed in touch with their family since the massacre.

“It was such a beautiful experience, they are very kind and compassionate people, down to earth and humble,” Martínez told CNN. “It was kind of a surprise, she (Meghan) had called my mom one random day and she had told us not long ago that she was coming to visit the kids and of course we were very excited,” she added. Meghan surprised Martínez’s mother with a cake for her birthday.

“They are such a beautiful couple and I am so blessed, so glad they came to check on the family,” John wrote in social media messages about Harry and Meghan. “I can’t believe how loving and understanding they are, especially with my amazing cousins. Meghan Markle singing happy birthday to my mom was the cutest and most adorable thing ever; “She even bought him a cake.”

With Meghan holding the birthday cake, the couple also led the family in singing “Happy Birthday” to Claudia Martínez, Irma’s sister. “Are you all singing too?” Meghan joked at first to encourage people to join in singing, shouting “my love” to Harry, who nodded to confirm that he would join her.

On May 26, 2022, two days after the massacre, Meghan visited the memorial to the shooting victims at the Uvalde County Courthouse. “Today, Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, visited Uvalde, Texas,” a spokesperson for the Sussexes said at the time. “She made this trip in her personal capacity as a mother, to offer her condolences and support in person to a community experiencing unimaginable pain.”

In January 2023, Harry and Meghan’s Archewell Foundation announced that it had raised $13 million and distributed $3 million to good causes. In an “impact report,” Archewell said the projects he had donated to included a playground in Uvalde.

The couple’s appearance in Uvalde followed Meghan’s at the SXSW panel, “Breaking Barriers, Shaping Narratives: How Women Lead On and Off Screen,” alongside Katie Couric, Brooke Shields, Nancy Wang Yuen and Errin Haines.

When asked how she handled “the seemingly endless toxicity” that permeates social media, Meghan said she had endured “the brunt of the harassment and abuse” while pregnant with her children, Archie and Lilibet. “You have to really understand why people would be so hateful. It’s not malicious, it’s cruel,” she said. “Why would you do that?”

Car rams into Buckingham Palace

A car crashed into the gates of Buckingham Palace at 2.30am on Saturday. Armed police arrived on the scene within seconds and a man was arrested at gunpoint. A witness to the incident told Sun: “I heard a loud bang, I looked and the car had crashed into Buckingham Palace. “The police arrived on the scene fairly quickly, removed the man and arrested him.” There were no reports of injuries.

A royal source told The Daily Beast that there were no members of the royal family residing in the palace at the time, and said repairs were being carried out on the doors.

Diana’s brother reveals child sexual abuse

Princess Diana’s brother Earl Spencer has written a new memoir in which he reveals that he was sexually abused when he was 11 by an employee at his exclusive boarding school. He says he self-harmed and forced himself to get sick as a reaction to the abuse in an excerpt from his memoir published exclusively in the mail on sunday. Spencer, 59, says a matronly assistant manipulated him and her colleagues into believing they were having a romantic relationship with her when in reality she was a “voracious pedophile”.

Spencer says the unnamed woman first “kissed me on the lips” and then “promoted me to the second rank of her reverse harem: those she touched intimately.” He says she chose one boy each quarter to “share her bed and use him for sex.” He says he only addressed the abuse decades later, and believes it prompted him to want “full sex from too young an age,” with the result that he lost his virginity at age 12 to a prostitute in Italy.

Edward: Sophie is “an absolutely brilliant rock.”

Prince Edward has described his wife Sophie’s support as “critical, absolutely critical. She has been an absolutely brilliant rock and I am so lucky to have found Sophie and for her to have found me. Hopefully we’ve been a really brilliant partnership. We are very lucky, we have two of what we consider to be particularly bright children, who are forging such different paths. I think that’s equally fascinating too.”

Edward spoke in an interview to mark his 60th birthday.^th birthday today on ITV’s Love your weekend show in the UK presented at the Sunday Telegraph. Of adjusting to his new title as Duke of Edinburgh, once held by his father, Prince Philip, Edward said: “It was a great privilege, but also a great expectation. I mean, there’s a huge legacy that came with that title and everything my father had done. Especially when you’re not inheriting it, this is a choice… that comes with all the expectations people have. It’s just the strangest, strangest feeling. You walk into a room and, especially nowadays, there are places with names on a card, and I still look around and say, ‘Yeah, but where am I sitting?’”

His father was, quite simply, “an extraordinary man,” Edward said. “He had an extraordinary mind. He loved design, he loved innovation, he was brilliant with all kinds of people. Sometimes he didn’t necessarily seem that way, but in reality he was brilliant with people. He was always, always encouraging everyone. You kind of needed to get to know him.”

Edward recalled that his father taught his daughter Lady Louise to drive a horse-drawn carriage. “It was completely on his account. I mean, you know, just one day, ‘Can I go out with you and sit on the checkouts?’ He said, ‘Absolutely.’ He was never going to say no! He took her with the team and I think it was only the second time. He was driving and said, ‘Do you want to try it?’ and she didn’t even have time to answer the question, he just handed her the reins.”

This week in real history

On March 13 last year, the royals turned out in force at the Commonwealth Day Service at Westminster Abbey, Charles’ first as monarch. This year (the service will be held on Monday), he won’t be there, and neither will (presumably) Kate. Expect Queen Camilla and William to head the family, unless Prince Andrew decides to storm to the front, of course.

Questions without answer

Will the photo of Kate Middleton and her children calm the feverish rumors about her health? Harry and Meghan’s powerful presence at Uvalde and Meghan’s eloquence at SXSW showed them doing their best kind of advocacy. What will they do next?