Kate Middleton Video Backlash: was it a little too much?

0:00 Ah Caloroga Shark Media. Hello and welcome to a special bonus episode of Palace Intrigue. I am your host, Mark Francis, our royal insider Deep Crown was suspicious about the timing of Kate's video drop, and it seems DC wasn't the only one. In the Daily Mail, Liz Jones writes, it started so movingly, so powerfully, a simple, stark message from Catherine, a few simple words we have all waited anxiously to hear. Few. I was in tears. But then suddenly, and inexplicably, what began as a heartfelt message, a tonic, a relief after all the months of obfuscation, descended into a bodin advert Keith has been through hell, through a battle, and she is winning.

0:52 And yet the highly choreographed, slick and soft focus three minute video released on Monday afternoon was surely as misjudged. The nineteen sixty nine documentary that attempted to portray the Royal Family Is Normal backfiring so badly that the Queen made sure it was never seen again. If that documentary, following a Year in the Life of the Monarch, was accused of ruining the royal mystique by making them seem like any other modern family. This new video was attempting to do the opposite, to portray the Waleses' as hyperreal, perfect retro, like something out of an Enid Blaton novel. But why on earth a real portrayal would show the kids on their phones. Surely Catherine would look tired and pensive, not perfect with conquer colored hair. She says, it has been incredibly tough. But the trouble is it all looks like a photogenic walk in the park. Only William seems almost real. Reclined on various blankets or on the sand, he is awkward, as if placed there, limbs carefully arranged like a marionette. Cancer is messy, imperfect, shattering. After all the mental health initiatives, her work stressing the importance of shaping young mindan, this strange, odd film seems a misfire from a family once so protective of their privacy. Smacks of something Megan and Harry might come up with, hallmark, cringy, cliched, not real or from the heart at all. Wouldn't it have meant more if Catherine had discussed the type of cancer she is suffering from, possibly saving hundreds, if not thousands, of lives. Perhaps a video of her meeting other women

2:23 with the same diagnosis. Where was the Catherine from that bench in Windsor bearing her soul telling us of her diagnosis? Replaced by a chimeror an ideal, an illusion? Who at Kensington Palace thought this was the right approach. There were lots of sober comment pieces in the papers yesterday saying Kat has taken control, driven the narrative, but it all seems off and the public is seeing through it. After a strange video looking ecstatic leaving at farm shop and a radiant appearance at the trooping of the Color in Wimbledon, we suddenly have this outpouring of intimacy that, to me many of us seems a bit desperate. To my mind, the portrait of our next king was off too. How can we take William seriously? Having seen his bare legs wrapped around his wife. The monarchy is hanging by a thread.

3:10 Please don't stretch our credulity. We checked back in with Deep Crown, who texted back, notice how you aren't asking me about Harry. Melanie Madonna poses a question in the standard Can the Crown survive Kate's dreadful video. She writes, of course, it's marvelous news that the Princess of Wales has come to an end of chemotherapy treatment and is well on the way to recovery, which of us did not feel for her in her last somber announcement that she had cancer. It is also the best of news that she will be returning to public duties. She was missed. The prayers of the nation have been answered. But forgive me, was it necessary to share this news with the nation in an utterly grisly video. If she were advertising herbal Essence's Tropical Showers shampoo, it would have been just the thing.

3:53 The shots of her walking in slow motion through a sunlit meadow, her long hair moving in the breeze, her slender figure shown totage in her simple cotton frock. Why it made one feel emotionally manipulated, squeezed like a lemon from the last drop of sympathy. So she's feeling well, One is glad. One doesn't need the point rubbed home with a gruesome image of her releasing a little yellow butterfly from her hand. Is emotional reticence now over in the Royal family, one fears so, though it still thank God has a place with the redoubtable Princess Anne, but it comes as a cost. By turning the Royals into exhibits of emotional wellness, it diminishes their value as parts of a national institution in which dignity is the main thing.

4:33 Kate has lost that. In the Guardian, Marina Hired rites, I feel deep sympathy for Kate, and I'm glad she's better, but this dance with the media devil won't work. Watching the three minute films shot by some adman, I wondered who could possibly feel it was anything but sad that a recovering post chemo mother should feel that this is her best option for keeping well wishes at bay A little longer. Kate's video shot by a man who has also shot campaigns for Uber Eats and who made Tesco's Food Love Stories commercials. Something else is being served up here, which for some reason he has decided to make look like a Center Park's ad, despite artfully included clips of Prince George asking off a camera is this filming? The video was not captured by a GoPro and a picnic rug, but by a crew in a significant post production operation who made studied use of filters and slow motion, switching from sweeping shots to greeny scenes designed to ape sinnate film.

5:28 Unlike the private home movies. In the opening titles of Succession, the footage shows a happy family, but for my money, the sense of menace is still there. But whereas the Royers are menaced from within, the Minister the Waleses comes from the outside, and it is the endless and thankless task of appeasing it that dictates that this video must exist at all. The Princess of Wales video feels like an attempt to meet social media on its own terms. Social media is, of course, the arena in which hunting Kate became a jolly global blood sport earlier this year year, when the hashtag be kind brigade grew bored within weeks and whipped up a vicious feeding frenzy of conspiracy theories as to her absence and the reasons for it. Kate tried silencing it with a Mother's Day photo. Minor editing glitches immediately became a scandal for which she absurdly felt obliged to formally apologize. Inevitably, Meanwhile, the saying critics who detest Harry and Meggan's barefoot California content declin to look at the style of the Waleses video and consider that the meganization of the Royal family continues a pace. Even the BBC, in their prim and proper way, suggested something is curious about this video. They write it's a world away from old school Royal releases, which stuck to the barest of details and stayed as dry as the desert.

6:46 This much lusher treatment follows the trend of celebrities and public figures taking their messages straight to the public, using the language of social media rather than conventional news or an interview. It allows a great deal of control over the message, with a vocative music and slick editing driving the story forward rather than any questions that might arise about her health or treatment. We see Catherine in a nineteen seventies style, long flowing dress, spending time with her family in the woods and by the beach, playing a game with her own parents. These are framed in a relatable way, the family relaxing after really tough times in a rural setting. That's meant to send a message about the soothing powers of nature. Over the top of the pictures is Catherine's narration in a movie voiceover style, capturing her sense of cautious optimism as she welcomes the end of her chemotherapy while at the same time recognizing the fagility of life. It's where Norfolk meets Hollywood plus Instagram.

7:41 Surely Harry and Megan would sit back and let Kate have her moment in the Sun, No, Piers Morgan in the Sun writes the gap was only one hundred minutes, but it might as well have been one hundred light years. At four twenty nine pm on Monday afternoon, the Prince and Princess of Wales released a stunningly powerful three minute film about Kate's ongoing battle with cancer, and at six nine pm Netflix released a promo for a new documentary series about Paulo made by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Of course, it may just have been a stupendous coincidence, but if you believe that, then I've got some very dodgy old Ford corteens to sell you. One thing is indisputable, and it's that the separate announcements perfectly encapsulated the very different lives of these two couples now, one featuring the heir to the throne and his health stricken wife, was an extraordinarily moving, humble, and profoundly inspiring insight into what it's like to have a life threatening illness when you have a loving, young family, regardless of wealthless status. The other, featuring two spoiled brat renegades who ditched royal duty and service for a life of self enriching Hollywood glitz and glamour, was a nauseatingly ill timed self promotional plug for a series about a sport so elite only millionaires can play it.

8:50 Regardless of whether Megan and Harry deliberately rushed out their promo to try and spoil Kate and William's big announcement or just to capitalize on the megaton sized global attention it instantly received, it landed like a PLoP of unwonted pigeon poop on a pavement. All Tuesday's newspapers front pages from England to Australia, to America and India were dominated by images from the Wales' film, with barely a cursory side mentioned to the Sussex's bedeweled horse and mallet grift. I can only begin to imagine the indignant shrieks of hand ringing rage that emanated from a certain mansion in Montecito when the Sussexis realized that the latest money grabbing venture had once again been eclipsed by their sworn sibling and sister in law enemies. At Kensington Palace, Pallas Intricaple right back, William, who totally isn't trying to get you to stop talking about Harry's fortieth birthday, made a solo appearance in Wales. William kicked off the day at Swiss Valley Community Primary School, where he greeted staff and students with a cheerful good morning. In Welsh, head teacher Joe Davies described William as a gentleman and noted how his warm demeanor put everyone at ease. She shared that the school was thrilled and honored by his visit as it highlighted their efforts to provide enriching experiences for their students.

10:05 Williams day also included a stop at the home to the Scarlett's rugby union team. There, he supported the Welsh Rugby Unions Missing Caps campaign and spent time with past and present members of the national women's rugby team which recently qualified for the twenty twenty five World Cup, and they have it for this special bonus edition. Please follow us on Spotify, Apple or the app of your choice, and if you need to email us aldresses the Palasindriga at gmail dot com. Mark Francis my thanks to John mcdermaly. This's the Palace Indrigue. Good turned