The Princess of Wales’s smiling walk to the royal family’s Christmas service at Sandringham turned out to be her last public appearance for several months. In mid-January, Kensington Palace said she had been admitted to the London Clinic for abdominal surgery and was unlikely to resume normal duties until after Easter.
The statement did nothing to stop outlandish conspiracy theories flourishing online. The dervish of speculation whirled with greater intensity as Prince William pulled out of a memorial service for his godfather, King Constantine of Greece, and a Mother’s Day photograph of Kate with their three children was found to have been altered.
It finally came to a shame-faced halt with the release of a video message in which the princess disclosed that she had
