May 13, 2026
Kate Goes Global Again - The Princess heads to Italy
Princess Kate returns to the international stage with a major solo trip to Italy focused on early childhood development. Plus: a new biography revisits the chaos surrounding “Kategate,” conspiracy theories, and the emotional family conversation after Kate’s cancer diagnosis
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William and Catherine: The Monarchy's New Era: The Inside Story
The Royal Insider: My Life with the Queen, the King and Princess Diana
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Calorogu, Shark Media, Yeah Low, and Welcome to Pallace Intrigue
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and host Mark Francis. In The Times, Hillary Rose writes
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it's just over a year since she announced that her
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cancer was in remission and that she would begin a
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slow and measured return to royal duties. The trip to
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Italy would be the first time in nearly four years
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that Kate has gone abroad for work, in the first
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since her diagnosis and surgery in early twenty four It's
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no coincidence that her last solo trip abroad to Denmark
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in twenty twenty two was also about early childhood development,
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the sign of her global ambitions for her belief that
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the first years of a child's life are vital in
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shaping the adult they become. This is not just because
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she is the mother of three children. Courtiers have said
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that having met through her royal work adults who are
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struggling with addiction and mental health issues, she's been struck
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by heal often they could trace the roots of those
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problems to early childhood and as Winnim and Kate's children
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are now growing up, with George expected to go to
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boarding school in September, and the full on task of
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parenting very young children behind them. The flying foreign visit
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may be a blueprint for the future. Plus a sawly
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visit leaves one parent to do the school run. There
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are rumors that the government would like to deploy both
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of them to visit President Trump and America over the
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summer to continue the charm offensive begun by the King
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and Queen. In the Express Alicia Liberty writes, at a
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time when public life feels increasingly performative, Catherine is doing
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something radically different. No matter how hard Megan Michael tries
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to position herself as the relatable royal voice of modern womanhood,
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she will never be the Princess of Wales. Catherine's work
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is rooted in service, substance and long term societal impact, committed,
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determined and focused on people rather than performance, and frankly,
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it could not have arrived at a more critical moment.
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On paper, it sounds simple enough. Another royal campaign, another
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palace backed initiative, another carefully packaged launch. Except this one
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feels different. This is no longer Catherine simply raising awareness
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from the sidelines. The future Queen is edging into territory
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that feels increasingly societal preventative and deeply consequential, tackling how
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emotional well being in childhood shapes everything that follows later
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in life. She is not traveling to smile beside a
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classroom for five minutes before moving on to the next engagement.
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She is studying internationally recognized approaches to childhood development firsthand.
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That is proactive leadership. In many ways, this feels like
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the moment Princess Catherine moves beyond simply a popular royal
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figure and into something far more influential. Royal inside a
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deep crown adds. We have grown so accustomed to royal
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arrangements as a kind of choreographed reassurance, the wave, the
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flowers they carefully managed to walk about, that we sometimes
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forget to notice when someone is doing something genuinely different.
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Catherine's first trip back to the international stage was not
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a recuperative holiday somewhere warm and discreet. It was not
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a soft reintroduction via a beloved charity gala or a
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colon all Home County's engagement. It was a working visit
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with a specific purpose to a specific place chosen because
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of what she might learn there, rather than how she
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might appear. One does not stumble into that choice, one
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makes it deliberately, and the deliberateness tells you a great
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deal about the woman making it. A new royal biography
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is shedding more light on the difficult period surrounding Kate's
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cancer diagnosis in twenty twenty four. According to excerpts from
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Christopher Anderson's new book, Kate, The Courage, Grace and Power
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of the Woman Who Will Be Queen, Kate was determined
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to keep the diagnosis private until the children had broken
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up from school for Easter. According to the account, William
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and Kate picked the children up from school on the
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final day of term before returning home for what the
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biography describes as a carefully planned family conversation around the
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kitchen table. The couple reportedly brought a chocolate brownie from
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Gale's Bakery to help create a comforting atmosphere before explaining
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the situation. The biography claims, Kate reassured the children she
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was feeling better after surgery, but explained that doctors had
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found a few tiny cancer cells that would need treatment
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with a special medicine that could sometimes leave her tired.
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The new book also revisits the intense speculation that surrounded
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Kate's absence from public life before she announced her diagnosis
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publicly in March twenty twenty four, and as In claims
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that some of the online conspiracy theories were amplified by
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a Russian disinformation operation known as Doppelganger. The bizarre conspiracy
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theories surrounding Kate's disappearance from public life in early twenty
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twenty four became so intense that even professional royal look
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alikes were dragged into the storm. At the center of
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one particularly viral theory was British impersonator Heidi Egan, who
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found himself accused online of secretly standing in for the
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Princess of Wales after greeny footage emerged showing Kate and
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Prince William visiting a farm shop near Windsor. The frenzy
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exploded after months of speculation about Kate's health following abdominal surgery,
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compounded by controversy over an edited Mother's Day photograph released
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by Kensington Palace. According to a BBC analysis published time
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by disinformation correspondent Marianne Spring, false claims suggesting the woman
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in the Windsor farm shop footage was actually a body
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double generated tens of millions of views across TikTok in
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x within less than twenty four hours. The BBC noted
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there was no evidence to suggest this is the case,
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but the theory spread rapidly through algorithms, prompting conspiracy driven content.
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Eigan herself repeatedly tonied involvement. Speaking to both The New
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York Times and Cosmopolitan, she insisted she was nowhere near
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Windsor when the footage was filmed. One percent no, she
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told The New York Times. I was at work at
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the dance studio about eighteen miles away. She also told Cosmopolitan,
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I one hundred percent believe that is Cape Middleton and
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William in that video. Eigan explained that she had built
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a career over more than a decade as a royal
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look alike afters strangers constantly commented on her resemblance to
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Kate around the time of the twenty eleven royal wedding,
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but the online speculation quickly turned dark. She revealed she
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received abusive messages from people accusing her of participating in
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a palace cover up. When I say no, they go.
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But you're being paid to be here in this situation
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to fool us, She told the New York Times. Some
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of the comments are quite vile. The episode became one
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of the defining moments of the so called Kate Gate frenzy.
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More Palace in just a moment. A guest invited Ja
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Las Week's Royal Garden Party at Buckingham Palace has shared
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a glimpse inside the event. TikTok Used, a vv who
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attended the first Royal Garden Party of twenty twenty six
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with her husband, posted footage from inside the palace grounds
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showing crowds of guests enjoying tea, sandwiches and cakes. In
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the videos, she selected cucumber sandwiches, ham and tomato a sandwiches,
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salad rap a cup of tea. Joking about her husband's expectations,
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she said, this guy, I thought we were going to
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get chicken wings. Other guests were seen enjoying additional afternoon
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tea spread while military bands performed throughout the afternoon before
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members of the royal family arrived at four pm as
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the National Anthem played. King Charles is facing growing calls
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to help preserve park House, the childhood home of Diana,
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after new claims emerged about the condition of the property.
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The Norfolk Residence located near the Sandra Camp of State,
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has fallen into serious disrepair after redevelopment plans collapsed following
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the COVID pandemic. Diana lived at park House for the
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first fourteen years of her life while her father rented
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the property from the Royal State. The home later became
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a specialist hotel for disabled guests after being gifted to
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the Leonard Cheshire charity by Queen Elizabeth IID in nineteen
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eighty seven. The building now sits abandoned, with overgrown grass,
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peeling paint, and deteriorating brickwork. A source close to the
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situation said locals and people who admired Diana, no, the
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park House has been quietly forgotten despite its extraordinary historical
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and emotional importance. This was the place where her life began,
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where she spent her childhood, and where many of the
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experience that shaped her happened. Seeing it boarded up and
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visibly decaying has become upsetting because people feel a crucial
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piece of her story slowly disappearing. Another source added, people
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look at the immaculate upkeep of Sandringham and then see
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Diana's former home crumbling on minutes away, and they think
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it feels deeply uncomfortable. There is growing belief locally that
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Charles could step in if he truly wanted to preserve
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the property. Too many it seems cruel for him not to,
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and to allow a building tied so closely to Diana's
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memory to be left in this state while royal residences
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nearby remain pristine and there have it. If you'd like
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to email us addresses The Palace Intrigue at gmail dot com,
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please follows on Spotify, Apple or the app in your choice.
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I'm Mark Francis My thanks to John McDermott, This Palace
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Intrigue and Good Dams
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00:07:37.160 --> 00:07:40.600
135
00:07:40.639 --> 00:07:44.319
136
00:07:44.439 --> 00:07:48.319
137
00:07:48.360 --> 00:07:51.639
138
00:07:51.680 --> 00:07:55.879
139
00:07:55.920 --> 00:07:59.560
140
00:07:59.639 --> 00:08:01.920
141
00:08:02.000 --> 00:08:05.000
142
00:08:05.360 --> 00:08:08.800
143
00:08:08.800 --> 00:08:13.120
144
00:08:13.160 --> 00:08:15.480
145
00:08:15.519 --> 00:08:18.600
146
00:08:18.639 --> 00:08:22.439
147
00:08:22.519 --> 00:08:24.720
148
00:08:24.759 --> 00:08:27.439
149
00:08:27.600 --> 00:08:30.879
150
00:08:30.920 --> 00:08:33.879
151
00:08:34.039 --> 00:08:38.080
152
00:08:38.120 --> 00:08:40.960
153
00:08:40.960 --> 00:08:43.159
154
00:08:43.360 --> 00:08:46.279
155
00:08:46.320 --> 00:08:48.039
