171: Princess Kate announces cancer diagnosis

Introduction: Minutes 0 to 5:15
We will be off for a couple of weeks due to Easter. I watched Dream Scenario on HBO with Nicolas Cage. He’s a great actor but I don’t recommend it. I really liked The Map of Tiny Perfect Things on Amazon. It reminds Chandra of The Summer I Turned Pretty. She’s been watching Tennis but her favorite, Daniil Medvedev, didn’t win Indian Wells.

Royals: Minutes 5:15 to 22:45
Over the weekend we got a cover story in the Sun that Kate was seen out shopping with William at a farmer’s market. Then on Monday we saw a super grainy faraway video where the person supposed to be Kate is kind of bouncing around carrying a large bag. The woman in the video didn’t exactly look or walk like Kate. Assuming that was Kate, it reflects poorly on the Waleses because she hasn’t done any events since Christmas. Also, if that was Kate in the photo in the car with her mom, her face has since thinned out. After TMZ published the video of Kate at the farmer’s market, their executive producer said he wasn’t sure it was her.

There’s still fallout from the Frankenphoto too. Before we got the whole fake Kate video, Kensington Palace did a sourced story with the Times of London again explaining that Kate edited that photo, that she feels bad about the fallout and that she’s just trying to make her family look good. The quote that really stood out is where they called out the press agencies for noticing how janky that photo was. As Obama’s photographer Pete Souza said on Instagram, there’s a difference between adjusting the lighting or cropping a photo and pasting in different people. The royal rota tried to accuse Harry and Meghan of editing their photos, but the photographers, Misan Harriman and Chris Allerton, said that wasn’t true.

Part of the Frankenphoto fallout is that the wire agencies are reviewing all the photos ever submitted to them by Kensington Palace. One photo that’s particularly bad was released after the Queen’s death on what would have been her 97th birthday in 2023. It shows her at Balmoral on a couch with a bunch of her great grandchildren posing around her. That was obviously cobbled together from several photos. Getty added an editor’s note that “the image has been digitally enhanced at source,” and Reuters has announced that it’s “updating its procedures related to vetting images from Kensington Palace.” Another really janky photo featuring the great grandchildren was released after Philip died.

As we talked about last week, there’s renewed interest in Prince William’s alleged 2019 affair with Rose Hanbury. Rose’s lawyer went on the record to Business Insider last weekend to say the rumors are false. Other pundits are also defending her. Chandra thinks that the affair has been over a while. As part of the fallout from that, people have noticed stolen Qing Dynasty artifacts in family photos taken of Rose and her husband, David Rocksavage. We talk about the $10 million brooch that Camilla wore for an outing, which seemed meant to troll Kate.

Buckingham Palace, Prince Charles and Camilla’s office, seems pleased that Kensington Palace, Kate and William’s office, is screwing this up so badly. They don’t understand that it reflects poorly on them too and that most people don’t get the distinction.

Meghan has announced her new lifestyle brand, it’s called American Riviera Orchard. I will definitely buy what she’s selling and so will so many other people. So far she has just shown the logo and they have a one page website with an email signup.

We also heard this week that three hospital staffers are under investigation for trying to access Kate’s medical records at the London clinic where she was treated.

Kate’s cancer announcement: Minutes 22:45 to 27:30
We recorded this section on Friday after Kate made the announcement that she has cancer and is undergoing chemotherapy. Hopefully she is OK and will make a full recovery.

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