People Are Contrasting Media Coverage Of Kate Middleton And Meghan Markle

Recent questions surrounding Kate Middleton’s whereabouts have led royal-watchers to reflect on the way Meghan Markle has been treated as a public figure and in the media.

The Duchess of Sussex has, for years, been outspoken about being on the receiving end of relentless and racist attacks from social media users and the U.K. press. Many people on X, formerly Twitter, have in recent weeks compared that onslaught to the way the Princess of Wales has been covered the past few months, amid skepticism surrounding her withdrawal from public view.

Kate hasn’t been photographed in an official public appearance since December. Kensington Palace announced in January that she underwent a planned abdominal surgery and was unlikely to return to her public duties until after Easter.

Since then, speculation about Kate’s whereabouts and well-being have run rampant on social media.

Suspicions that there might be other reasons behind her noticeable absence were only fueled further on Sunday, when The Associated Press and other news agencies withdrew an official Mother’s Day photo of Kate and her children issued by Kensington Palace. The AP concluded that the photo appeared to have been manipulated in a way that did not meet the news agency’s standards.

The official X account for the Princess of Wales has since shared an apology — which was signed by Kate — about the edited picture, and the palace has tried to shut down conjecture about her whereabouts.

But the entire debacle surrounding the princess has sparked conversations about how people online and the British media have approached the growing public concern about Kate.

Aftersome publications in the U.K. press uncritically reprintedKate’s Mother’s Day photo — before the AP