Coronavirus Covid 19: Kate Middleton’s private battle as Prince William suffered

COMMENT

On April 9, there was royal breaking news: William and Kate, Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, had undertaken their very first official engagement via video call, speaking to elementary school staff and children. (And you thought being royal was all finger sandwiches and livery servants ironing your socks)

Royal watchers and social media turned into a foam of excitement for the tech savvy of the future King and Queen and Kate’s choice of a Zara sweater for the occasion, which she paired with his cheerful and cheerful hockey stick character.

The world now knows that when the couple walked away from behind the walls of their Georgian country house Anmer Hall, the reality was much, much less rosy.

Earlier this week, The Sun broke the news that William had been diagnosed with COVID-19 in early April, with a source saying, “William was hit pretty hard by the virus which really hit him for six years.”

Given that William will one day be the titular head of a government, an army, and a church, it was quite a monumental event for the palace machine to decide to keep it a secret.

As the positive coronavirus result of his father Prince Charles was released on March 25, the palace explained that the decision not to make William’s result public became “he just didn’t want to worry people. . He felt that more important things were happening. The country. “

This philosophy of keeping calm and keeping zooming doesn’t particularly stand up to close scrutiny, especially as other prominent figures such as Prime Minister Boris Johnson have seen fit to make their diagnoses public.

Also, after more than a year of Prince Andrew / Jeffery Epstein imbroglio having cast doubt on the transparency of the royal family, the finesse of this stealth of William is to be debated.

But we’re here to talk about Kate.

Although the exact date of William’s diagnosis has not been made public, on March 19 the Duke, alongside Kate, visited London Ambulance National Health Service 111 ward. The next time he was seen in public, so to speak, was the aforementioned public school video conference, suggesting he was ill at some point between those dates.

Throughout the COVID pandemic, the 38-year-old Duchess has been widely hailed as having ‘played a stronger role’. Facing the first real test in her (nearly) 10 years as a royal, Kate shone like some sort of beacon of dried-up mirth that the waiting princesses should be.

If there’s one thing that can be said about Kate, it’s that she makes it seem like an active member of the Royal Family effortlessly.

When she gets back to a formal engagement or engagement, there is no indication that she has (most likely) been up since dawn submitting to tedious hair and makeup sessions for hours or that she is on her feet. ‘s seated during the long pre-engagement briefings.

And that’s why, in retrospect, Kate’s performance during those 20 days in late March and early April is even more remarkable than previously thought.

While in the world there she was making Zoom calls and offering casual support and positivity, her own privacy had to be downright hellish.

For starters, William. The Sun reported that the second in line to the throne: “At one point he was having trouble breathing, so obviously everyone around him was quite freaked out.

“After seeing doctors and testing positive, which was obviously a shock given his form and health, William was determined it should be business as usual.

“He was determined to fulfill his commitments.”

For Kate, on a purely personal level, having a life-threatening illness in her family, an illness that has claimed the lives of thousands of otherwise young and healthy adults around the world, must have been terrifying.

Next year marks the Cambridges’ tenth wedding anniversary. None of the 1,900 inhabitants of Westminster Abbey that day or two billion who watched it on TV could have predicted that in less than a decade the first and second lined up on the throne would be struck by a global pandemic.

And yet there was Kate in her mustard number Zara, having perhaps faced the greatest personal and professional ordeal of her marriage and royal career simultaneously, while still exuding a perpetual mirth.

Likewise, Anmer Hall might boast ten bedrooms, but the logistics of quarantining William in a house that also included three rowdy children, a nanny, a housekeeper, not to mention the Duke and Duchess’s staff. , is far from simple.

During World War II, the Queen Mother (then Queen Elizabeth) acquired the status of a saint after her performance in the Blitz. She and her husband, King George VI, refused to leave Buckingham Palace for the safety of the country, even when bombs landed inside the palace grounds, saying: “I’m glad we were bombed. Now , we can look the East End in the eye. ”Likewise, the footage showing the 40-year-old London bomb sites on tour and providing masterful comfort has become legendary.

The lesson here is that when faced with a once in a lifetime test, the Queen Mother succeeded with flying pastel colors (most likely), turning into a beloved and fragrant champion for the masses.

This year, Kate has faced the same decisive challenge, which is decisive for history. Because it is during these kinds of moments that the monarchy takes on its full meaning and shines: as national cheerleaders constantly called upon to have fun and support a tired and scared nation.

In April, the Queen gave a deeply touching and rare speech saying: ‘We will meet again’.

Meanwhile, in the UK’s first lockdown (the second started this week), the full list of active royals, Prince Charles, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, Princess Anne, Prince Edward and his wife Sophie, Countess of Wessex, along with Kate and William made commitments to Zoom as Princess Margaret to a drinks cart. (That is, with impressive speed and unmistakable fervor.)

But let’s be honest here: while Anne’s bouffant and formidable work ethic may be the stuff the court flyer is made of, at the end of the day what the punters really want are the stars of the show. : Kate and William. (And in that order, I’d bet.)

So with William tucked away in his sickbed, and Harry and Meghan, Duke and Duchess of Sussex, having long flown into the Palace Co-op for a life of dawn yoga and dining with a former Real Housewives of Beverly Hills occasional (hello David Foster), all of that responsibility fell on Kate’s very narrow shoulders.

Sure, she might be wealthy and privileged in the extreme, but imagine for a moment the incredible pressure and weight of a country and an institution that weighed on her during this time.

Despite all of this, Kate was glowing and smiling, charming and exuding an affability to keep calm and move with exemplary poise and charm.

And all of this, we now know, she managed to pull it off while her husband battled a life-threatening illness and was forced into near-single motherhood. (Okay, the near-celibate motherhood that came with a small cadre of dedicated staff and a Norfolk country mansion that probably offers plenty of nooks and crannies where a tired mum can gulp down a glass of repairing pinot grigio away from her brood. unleashed.)

But that doesn’t take away from the fact that while Kate delivered the royal performance of all our lives, we now know that she did it while facing the same bustle and heartache as the Million and other British Moms. who had to watch a battle that COVID also had to face.
Yet Kate has taken the helm and has dazzled throughout this crisis, her performance being a timely reminder of the usefulness of the Royal Family in addition to being a perpetual tabloid staple and opening the Chelsea Flower Show.

Kate has taken on all that burden with her seemingly exemplary and polished veneer that never cracks once.

There are millions and millions of families around the world who have suffered so much more than Kate’s during this pandemic, however, in the context of the royal family, I think we can say that the Duchess lived a long way away. most difficult and demanding year. .

Not only that, but she pulled off the biggest challenge of her royal career with flying, dazzling colors.

Famous photographer Cecil Beaton once described the Queen Mother as “a marshmallow made on a welding machine”. After this year, I think we can say for sure that Kate is made of the same strong, fragrant substance.