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Another day, another scandal in the royal family as the palace does seemingly nothing to address the myriad of issues and rumors that seem to be swirling around them. Royal experts are chiming in, and usual allies are surprisingly critical of how King Charles III has handled his family’s ongoing crises — it doesn’t seem like there’s a plan in place. However, one insider is pointing out a pattern — what is happening to Kate Middleton is eerily similar to what occurred with Princess Diana.
CBS News contributor Tina Brown, and author of the book, The Palace Papers, appeared on CBS Mornings on Tuesday to discuss the international debacle and that’s when the Kate-Diana comparisons were drawn. Brown believes that “the wheels are coming off in terms of the sort of press situation there at the palace” and that hiding behind the estate walls of Windsor won’t solve any of these problems for the royal family.
“This old idea, really, that you can completely disappear, it just doesn’t work. It didn’t work in [Princess] Diana’s day,” Brown explained. “I do think [Kate] clearly feels ill and depleted, and she wants this time. But I also think, you know, there’s been so much strain and stress on her. She’s been trying to say, ‘Can I just recover quietly and in peace?’ just like Diana tried. And they won’t let you do it.”
Princess Diana’s relationship with the media was well-documented — it was a love-hate relationship. In the heyday of then-Prince Charles’ affair with Camilla Parker-Bowles, her alliances with several media outlets and reporters became crucial to slyly getting her side of the story out. However, when she wanted privacy from the constant onslaught of paparazzi and the British tabloids, it was difficult to navigate. A 1998 Vanity Fair feature after her passing the year before showed the tug-of-war the Princess of Wales often dealt with in her years married to Charles.
“She never lost her desperate wish for privacy, nor her compulsion to read every word written about her. In the last years of her life she was often described as ‘manipulative.’ But her native shrewdness and instinctive human touch with reporters and photographers were evident from the start,” wrote royal author Sally Bedell Smith. Kate has a softer approach in the press, but she had taken a page from her late mother-in-law’s playbook by often sending messages through her wardrobe and using the media to her advantage.
Now, at a time when Kate needs the privacy for her recovery, she’s finding that there is no peace at the palace. The royal family is so entrenched in the Royal Rota that they have to lay in the bed they’ve made — and it’s been this way for decades.
Before you go, click here to see Princess Diana’s most scandalous royal moments.
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