Prince William Affair Rumor Hits Mainstream Media

Rumors about Prince William’s affair, long ignored by mainstream media following denials from Kensington Palace, were picked up by mainstream media after being the subject of jokes on American television.

The palace’s public relations crisis over Kate Middleton’s absence from public life spiraled even further out of control after late show Host Stephen Colbert brought up the drama on Wednesday’s episode.

Social media has been rife with wild conspiracy theories based on the fact that there has been no clear, reliable image of Kate available since Christmas Day, and the only officially released portrait turned out to have been doctored. The princess underwent abdominal surgery in January.

Some of that rampant speculation has suggested that the couple are secretly divorcing due to long-standing affair rumors, which are not supported by any evidence and have been denied by the palace.

Colbert began by stating: “The kingdom has been shocked by the apparent disappearance of Kate Middleton.” He later said: “Internet sleuths are guessing” that Kate’s “absence may be related to her husband and future king of England, William, having an affair.”

The Guardian, he New York PostEastern Time, CosmopolitanTMZ and OK! magazine were among those who reported on the monologue.

Gossip first entered public consciousness after a story appeared in Sun in 2019 suggesting that Kate had fallen out with a rural neighbor. The original story was later taken offline.

Days later the gossip magazine circulated a more detailed rumor. In contactbefore the palace told reporters that the story “was totally wrong and false,” The Daily Beast reported.

Since then, mainstream British media outlets and many American outlets have avoided getting dragged into the gossip, even after an Instagram post detailing rumors about William’s marriage went very, very viral in the summer of 2022.

In doing so, they sacrificed traffic, i.e. money, out of respect for the palace’s insistence that the rumor was false. However, now The Guardiana serious news brand, has printed the rumor.

The gossip, although it had no supporting evidence, was so pervasive on social media that it had already entered the shared consciousness of many Britons years ago, meaning none of these stories will have made news.

But they do serve as a barometer of how respected and even feared the palace is by journalists. According to the last few days, not as much as in 2019.

And now, any effort the palace can make to quell the rumors would have to counteract the damage caused by the doctored photo of Kate that her advisers published on March 10.

Phil Chetwynd, global news director at Agence France-Presse, was asked on BBC Radio 4’s Media Show whether he considered Kensington Palace a reliable source: “Not at all. As with everything, when you disappoints a source, the bar is high.”

“We’re sending notes to all of our teams right now to be absolutely more vigilant about the content that’s coming across our desk,” he said, “even from what we would call trusted sources.”

All in all, the palace, Kate and William have a major crisis on their hands, which, if anything, is growing rather than diminishing as conspiracy theories on social media become increasingly rampant.

Jack Royston is news weekThe chief royal correspondent based in London. You can find him on X, formerly Twitter, at @jack_royston and read their stories in news of the week The Royals Facebook page.

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