“We were very clear from the start that the Princess of Wales would be absent until after Easter,” said Kensington Palace in a press release published on Thursday February 29.
The palace was in fact responding to the multiple conspiracy theories circulating on the web since Kate Middleton's hospitalization.
She was no longer seen in public after Christmas mass at Sandringham on December 25.
The magazine
Entertainment Tonight
nevertheless debunked the rumors surrounding an alleged disappearance by publishing, on Monday March 4, the first photo of the Princess of Wales in the space of two months.
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A photograph not distributed in the United Kingdom
We see Prince William's wife, smiling and wearing sunglasses, in the passenger seat of a car.
His mother Carole is at the wheel of the vehicle.
The photo was apparently taken near London around 9 a.m. on Monday March 4, an eyewitness told the weekly.
“The princess kept a low profile and looked out the window, while her mother looked at the road,” he said.
Kate Middleton, 42, was hospitalized on Tuesday, January 16 for “scheduled abdominal surgery.”
Also read: “But who is in charge?”
: after Charles, Kate and William, Queen Camilla also interrupts her official commitments
The reasons for this intervention remain unknown, but it is not cancer, according to British media.
According to the
Daily Mail
, this first image of Kate Middleton was not broadcast in the United Kingdom because Kensington Palace, the official residence of the princely couple, “urged that she be able to recover in private” .
Extremely popular in England, Kate Middleton is currently convalescing at Adelaide Cottage, her family residence on the Windsor estate, and is not expected to resume her activities before March 31.
The absence of Queen Camilla
For his part, Prince William alarmed the British on Tuesday, February 27, by announcing at the last moment that he would not be able to attend the ceremony in tribute to his godfather, King Constantine of Greece, due to a "personnal issue".
The palace "would not give further details", but indicated that "the Princess of Wales, who is recovering from abdominal surgery, continues to do well", according to the British agency PA .
Some tabloids like the
Sun
were nevertheless concerned about “who was in charge” after the announcement of Queen Camilla's week of vacation, “exhausted” by her multiple official commitments.
The wife of Charles III will return on Monday March 11.