“This is just weird”: BuzzFeed News' former royals reporter on Kate Middleton, Palace PR, and distrust in the media – Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard
Editor’s note: When I realized I was in no fewer than four separate group chats discussing Kate Middleton’s almost complete disappearance from the public eye, I turned to Ellie Hall to help me figure things out.
Ellie, who’s currently a freelance journalist, was senior reporter and official royal correspondent for BuzzFeed News from 2013 until the newsroom shut down in April 2023. The first part of this story is a Q&A, where I spoke with Ellie about royal reporting, social media, Kensington Palace PR strategy, and how a digitally connected world has made the official press apparatus of the royal family and the royal media system somewhat obsolete.
The second part of the story is Ellie’s timeline of the media’s recent coverage of Middleton. Ellie is so knowledgeable and clear-eyed, and I found our conversation and her timeline more interesting than even the most out-there conspiracy theory. — Laura Hazard Owen
Editor’s note: When I realized I was in no fewer than four separate group chats discussing Kate Middleton’s almost complete disappearance from the public eye, I turned to Ellie Hall to help me figure things out.
Ellie, who’s currently a freelance journalist, was senior reporter and official royal correspondent for BuzzFeed News from 2013 until the newsroom shut down in April 2023. The first part of this story is a Q&A, where I spoke with Ellie about royal reporting, social media, Kensington Palace PR strategy, and how a digitally connected world has made the official press apparatus of the royal family and the royal media system somewhat obsolete.
The second part of the story is Ellie’s timeline of the media’s recent coverage of Middleton. Ellie is so knowledgeable and clear-eyed, and I found our conversation and her timeline more interesting than even the most out-there conspiracy theory. — Laura Hazard Owen
I’ve been interested in the British monarchy and its history since I was quite young, and I happily volunteered to cover the royal family during my first weeks at the company. From that point on, I was BuzzFeed News’s official royal correspondent. Although I was able to secure accreditation to cover members of the royal family in person during three separate official visits to the United States, BuzzFeed News was not a media outlet on the official press team’s radar for a fair amount of time (the newsroom did get there eventually).
I always tried to cover the royal family in a way that would interest the hardcore followers as well as casual readers, using my own observations and questions to guide my coverage. My biggest royal story was my January 2020 comparison of U.K. media headlines about Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle, which was actually something I’d been working on and adding examples to since February 2019. Although I had always covered the royal family, the success of that post encouraged my editors to launch a royal newsletter, The Royal Tea, and give me structured time for stories that were more analytical and more in my own voice than straight-up news posts. From that point on, I covered royal news as it broke, but I also wrote a lot of deep dives, analyses, and looks at aspects of the royal media ecosystem that nobody else was really covering.
Royal press offices rarely go on the record. As former Guardian editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger noted in this great column that I reference all the time in my work, it’s “unusually difficult” to judge the reliability of royal reporting because “it is a world almost devoid of open or named sources.” You almost never see stories with direct attributions to royal spokespersons, which is one of the big reasons why this “Kate Middleton is missing” saga is so interesting. A Palace spokesperson has gone on the record three times — first in response to a Spanish media report that Kate was in a coma, then in response to the widespread social media speculation about her status, and then once again in response to William’s reaction to the social media speculation.
Instead of going on the record, royal press offices will give briefings and in some situations provide information to a core group of royal reporters — with the caveat that these reporters won’t say that the information came from an official spokesperson. Phrases like “this reporter understands” or “this news outlet can confirm” are very common in stories about the royal family. If you follow royal reporters on Twitter, you can always tell when one of these memos is sent, because within minutes of each other, reporters will tweet a similarly worded update or clarification. We saw this happen last week when news of [British financier and husband of royal family member Lady Gabriella] Thomas Kingston’s death was made public. Later that day, royal reporters started tweeting within minutes of each other that William’s absence from the memorial service was not related to the tragedy. (The fact that Kensington Palace wanted this information to get out has, of course, been deemed highly significant by some conspiracy theorists.)
The only method of contacting the press office that is given on the official website is a phone number that connects you to a royal family switchboard. Emailed requests for comment sent to each office’s primary email address don’t always receive responses. Even if you’ve been vetted by the Palace and added to the official press release listserv, sometimes statements will only be sent to certain news outlets — something that leaves a lot of reporters scrambling to get caught up during breaking news situations. I had an interesting back-and-forth with someone in a royal communications office on one of those days. Royal journalists in the U.K. were reporting something important, citing an official statement that hadn’t been posted online or sent out as a press release. I reached out to the royal press office for confirmation and received a response asking why I was contacting them when all of these other outlets had already reported the news. Thus I found myself writing an email explaining that journalists are supposed to independently fact-check information they don’t receive firsthand, which was a weird experience.
The big question about the saga of Kate’s “disappearance” and every royal controversy is how much control the palace press offices have over the media.
Royal press offices hold a fair amount of control because they act as gatekeepers to the members of the royal family. We know that they at least attempt to wield influence behind the scenes. Royal reporters have confirmed that the Palace press offices have tried to kill false — and true — stories before publication. We also know that on at least one occasion the Palace has preemptively reached out to media outlets to warn them off reporting a particular story. We also learned this week that someone from Kensington Palace reached out to an airline to get them to delete a rude tweet about William when a rumor about him was trending on Twitter.
We know that the Palace has actively concealed royal news from the press and reportedly even lied to reporters about issues concerning the health of royal family members — in November 2020, we learned that William had contracted a severe case of COVID-19 in April 2020. At the time, veteran royal reporter Robert Jobson tweeted about Kensington Palace’s “appalling” decision to lie about the prince’s health, writing, “KP were asked several times by the media whether Prince William had contracted the virus and were told categorically ‘no.’”
TMZ’s recent publication of the paparazzi photo of Kate and her mother driving in Windsor has added a new dimension to the media control discussion. Kensington Palace has let it be known that the photos were unauthorized and no U.K. media outlets have run the images, even the tabloids (although most have written up the fact that U.S. media outlets have published an image of the princess). On Wednesday, veteran royal reporter Emily Andrews said on Twitter that Kensington Palace “exerted huge pressure on the British media NOT to publish the pic,” which she said was proof that the press team didn’t set up the photo opportunity.
Safe to say that the U.K. media response to the photo’s publication isn’t doing anything to dispel the “Palace controls the media” narrative that’s running rampant on social media.
One of Harry and Meghan’s biggest issues with the royal rota system was the fact that the group includes tabloids. These are the outlets that have historically run the most sensational and invasive stories about the royals. They also run the most stories — tabloids constantly churn out royal content on every imaginable topic, no matter how flimsy its apparent source or connection to a member of the royal family.
In this case, the lack of speculative tabloid coverage about Kate’s status is one of the things that people have found suspicious about the current situation. The historically nosy news outlets haven’t theorized about what specific type of surgery she had or the circumstances that led to her medical issue being discovered. Until the TMZ photo was published, there hadn’t been any stories about or photographs of the famously close Middleton family. There’s also a distinct dearth of the fluffy, low-stakes stories about the princess that you usually see in the tabloids (like “What Kate’s doing to relax” or “How Kate’s staying a hands-on mother during her recovery”).
A few years ago, I had an interesting exchange with a press officer when another royal conspiracy theory was trending online. On Feb. 22, 2022, a celebrity gossip blog called Hollywood Unlocked reported that Queen Elizabeth II had died. The post went insanely viral, and by the next day, rumors of the Queen’s death were so widespread that the whole situation in and of itself was newsworthy. I reached out for comment to Buckingham Palace and they refused to give an on-the-record response, telling me on background that they didn’t want to establish a precedent of responding to online speculation.
It’s been really interesting to watch the discussion of Kate’s “disappearance” slowly spread from the toxic hellhole that is so-called “royal internet” into mainstream pop-culture consciousness on social media, especially on Twitter/X. We’ve reached a point where people who don’t normally follow the royal family are invested in this saga.
It’s worth noting that a lot of the conversation was initially driven by pro-Harry and Meghan accounts, and many of the darker conspiracy theories (the ones described as “deeply sinister and highly libelous” by the Daily Mail) seemed to originate from those online spaces. That being said, these speculations are now part of the global conversation, although they’re fortunately balanced by conspiracy theories that are, if not lighthearted, unserious. The BBLs and Glasgow Willy Wonka photoshops, for example.
While tons of people on Twitter are clearly only following this saga for drama, gossip, and memes, over the past week, you’ve been able to observe a growing group of individuals who at least give the impression that they’re genuinely worried about Kate and want to know that she’s okay. That apparent sincerity is rare when it comes to online discussions about the royal family, and I think it’s one of the things keeping Kate in the public eye.
People are comparing the hands-off, privacy-first stance that the press is taking toward Kate with their attitude toward Meghan and the stories that were written about her while she was on maternity leave. I’ve seen a lot of posts remarking on how strange it is that the Palace and U.K. media suddenly care about privacy when they didn’t before now. There’s also a definite feeling among some people that Kate should have to go through this social media and press speculation, because Meghan went through it, it was worse for Meghan, and when she complained, people told her to suck it up.
Regardless of your feelings about Meghan or Kate, it’s a fact that over the past month, the Palace has gone on the record three times — first to counter an article about the Princess of Wales and then twice to comment on social media speculation about her well-being. (If you’d like to see more examples of times when the royal family press teams did or didn’t go on the record for stories about these women, I published a deep dive looking into that question at BuzzFeed News.) Meghan and Harry have both said in interviews that this was something the Palace would not do for them. We also know that the Palace “exerted huge pressure on the British media” not to publish a paparazzi photo of Kate — and so far the press has complied.
I read all the stories written by royal rota reporters and the major royal reporters on the beat at other outlets. I have an almost 11 year-old Twitter list of royal reporters (and official royal social media accounts) that helps me stay updated. I also keep an eye on celebrity gossip and blind gossip websites, because you can often trace some of the wildest royal rumors and theories back to them.
Also, sometimes there’s just some great, clearly fictitious, content. One of my all-time favorites is a Blind Gossip post from July 2019 that claims Meghan freaked out because she couldn’t find avocados in the U.K. and wanted them flown in from California.
Despite its toxicity, royal social media was helpful when it came to stories because it let me get a sense of the sort of questions people were asking about royal news and what misinformation was circulating. I wrote a lot of posts that explained or debunked things that I’d seen trending on Twitter or popping up on Reddit. I also did some reporting on the royal social media networks themselves — I spent a few months going down the rabbit hole of Meghan Markle hate accounts and found evidence that the duchess’s half-sister Samantha was interacting with some of these people and spreading conspiracy theories. I ended up knocking on her door in Florida for that one. She ultimately didn’t talk to me, but it was an interesting trip. That story has actually been cited a few times (by Meghan’s lawyers) in Samantha’s ongoing defamation lawsuit against the duchess. It’s pretty wild.
I’m not saying this is “The Crown’s” fault, but it doesn’t help matters that for years pop culture has been dominated by a fictionalized narrative that depicts the monarchy and its employees scheming behind the scenes and manipulating the media, happily throwing certain members of the royal family under a bus in service to the overriding goal of preserving the power of the sovereign. Even without the Netflix series, a lot of people still hold a grudge against the royals because of Princess Diana and wonder about the circumstances of her death. I also feel like a lot of this distrust stems from what Harry and Meghan have said since leaving working royal life. Their descriptions of a back-stabbing, Machiavellian organization in interviews and Harry’s memoir Spare have definitely made an impact on the public’s perception of the monarchy and the royal reporting beat.
So when you have a situation like we’re currently in, if people feel that they can’t trust the institution and they can’t trust the reporters, they’re going to go on what they can see — and, as the timeline [below] shows, what they’re seeing is raising questions. The public can’t help but compare how Buckingham Palace is handling the King’s medical crisis with how Kensington Palace is handling Kate’s. People remember how Kate let herself be photographed leaving the hospital the other time she received inpatient treatment (for hyperemesis gravidarum during her first pregnancy in 2012) and how she met the world’s media dressed perfectly and wearing high heels hours after giving birth. Members of the public are also going to make judgments about what’s going on now based on how the Palace has handled similar situations in the past — and there’s a fairly recent example of the royal family press team allowing the widespread publication of paparazzi-style images of one of its off-duty members (Kate was photographed attending a memorial service for a woman killed by a police officer in 2021).
I don’t think we’d be in this position if Kensington Palace had shared something besides two official announcements and one statement to the press. There’s an information void surrounding Kate’s current status, and the royal press team has left a lot of space to speculate about what’s actually going on. It doesn’t seem like it’s going to slow down anytime soon, either. It will be interesting to see if Kensington Palace eventually caves and gives the public something personal from Kate, be that a statement, a photo taken by her, a picture of her and her kids, something along those lines.
Calleja came onto the scene soon after Kensington Palace announced that Kate had been hospitalized. She first reported that Kate had actually been admitted to the hospital in December and wasn’t doing well, and then claimed that the princess had to be placed in a medically induced coma. Her credibility, at least in Spain, is such that mainstream outlets quickly picked up both reports.
Her stories might have stayed under the radar if Kensington Palace hadn’t gone on the record with the Times of London to refute the report that Kate was in a coma. Royal press teams don’t usually comment at all, let alone on specific stories, and, ironically, by releasing a statement the Palace drew even more attention to Calleja’s reporting.
In a bold move, following the publication of the Times of London story, Calleja doubled down on her reporting, stating that she trusted her source 100% and claiming that Kensington Palace was upset that she had discovered the truth.
Calleja claims to have covered the royal family for 27 years. According to her website, she has written two books about Princess Diana, one of which is an investigation into the conspiracy theory that the beloved royal was murdered. [Ed. note: Another one of Calleja’s books suggests Michael Jackson was murdered.]
I could definitely see a scenario where the Waleses and their press team cave in and post a personal message from Kate or a photo/video of her, but I think the chances of that happening are pretty slim. William’s spokesperson’s comment to People that “his focus is on his work and not on social media” and the belligerent tone of the Daily Beast interview with the couple’s friends indicate to me that the Prince and Princess of Wales themselves are personally very invested in keeping Kate out of the public eye and have no plans to budge on that point.
Then again, there’s always the possibility that one of these conspiracy theories could be true, and if that’s the case, God only knows.
Trying to track a conspiracy theory in narrative form is difficult, because anything and everything can be assigned significance to bolster whatever story a person espouses. The key event that ties one theory together could be meaningless to another. It’s easier to explain what people find important in each detail if you go point by point.
This method also makes it easier to add context and correct misinterpretation. There are a lot of people down this rabbit hole who are unfamiliar with the way the royal family operates and that knowledge definitely changes how you view some of these points.
Timelines also help you see patterns and make informed guesses about what events prompted what actions.
After Kate’s surgery is announced, multiple outlets will report that this Italy trip had to be rescheduled. To some, this is taken as an indication that the princess’s operation wasn’t as “planned” as Kensington Palace might want the public to think.
If #WhereIsKategate has a smoking gun, it’s this video. No royal institution has commented on it and the uploader hasn’t provided follow-up details.
This is not entirely out of character, as the official accounts did not make posts about her birthday or William’s birthday in 2023 — but her birthdays had been marked by posts from 2018 to 2022. (Also, new pictures of her were released on her birthday in 2020 and 2022.)
A statement from Kensington Palace pic.twitter.com/6h3BCrqj5L
— The Prince and Princess of Wales (@KensingtonRoyal) January 17, 2024
Multiple outlets report that William has canceled engagements and “shifted his schedule” to help his wife and care for their children.
Later, multiple outlets and journalists report that this was the only day they were allowed to report on Kate’s health from outside the hospital.
(Following the media circus before and after the birth of Prince George in 2013, the Palace press offices have cracked down on members of the media gathering outside hospitals, so limiting the time networks can camp outside the London Clinic isn’t entirely out of the norm.)
(This is the first of what will be many examples of Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace taking different approaches to how they handle one of their royal “principals” suffering from a medical condition.)
(This is the only time he is seen visiting his wife.)
(Eagle-eyed Kate truthers immediately seize upon the fact that December 28 is the day that the random Twitter user saw a royal convoy heading to a London hospital. Other royal watchers point out that the Wales’s longtime nanny is Spanish. Calleja’s report is the first real “follow-up” story to the surgery announcement, in the sense that no media outlets have published stories reporting anything besides the official statement. You can normally count on the U.K. tabloids for some sort of wacky speculation when it comes to stories about the royal family, but not this time.)
(This claim about working in bed will be brought up later as conspiracy theories start to flourish. During the pandemic, Kate regularly held Zoom calls with these institutions, and screenshots of these meetings were released to the press. Questions will be raised about why any images of Kate or updates/anecdotes from employees of the institutions haven’t leaked, if she’s been working while she recovers.)
These details are seen as more indications that Kate’s health situation was more dire than has been reported.
This is just weird. It’s being seized upon by conspiracy theorists as an apparent example of the royal press offices directing a media outlet to change a story, or a media outlet trying to write a story about a possible conflict in the Waleses’ marriage. In all likelihood this was someone looking to make a story quota who messed up.
(While royal children of the previous generation visited relatives when they were in hospitals, this is the first time we’ve known about either William and Kate needing inpatient treatment. There’s no precedent — there’s a big difference between the children visiting their mother and new sibling at a hospital and children visiting their mother after major surgery.)
Note: Whether purposeful or not, the Queen’s public arrivals and departures at the hospital make an obvious contrast to William’s apparent absence.
Note: Although this story has been bubbling under the surface of the discourse about Kate’s condition, it really begins to spread now.
A statement from Kensington Palace pic.twitter.com/DW6BOHuuRJ
— The Prince and Princess of Wales (@KensingtonRoyal) January 29, 2024
The Daily Mail later reports that William drove her home.
Despite the fact that members of the media were apparently set up around the hospital in order to photograph the King and Queen, her departure is not photographed.
Thank you to all those who have sent their good wishes during The King's hospital stay.
His Majesty is delighted that his diagnosis is having a positive impact on public health awareness. pic.twitter.com/qbaCcwQg5a
— The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) January 29, 2024
Once again, we have a very public contrast between the King and Kate. Obviously they both are experiencing very different issues and have very different responsibilities, but it nonetheless draws attention to the differences.
Note: Palace spokespersons do not go on the record very often — the fact that someone in the Palace said this and the journalist was allowed to cite it to a spokesperson is significant. For the most part, royal family press offices ignore stories that they consider to be obviously false, because commenting will lend some credibility to the claims and draw more attention to it.
The fact that this story is still being covered in the mainstream media after the Palace’s denial is interesting — most of the time, the reporters or outlets pushing these types of stories don’t have the credibility to defend themselves.
The fact that Buckingham Palace uses the pointed phrase “to prevent speculation” while at the same time declining to specify the King’s cancer is a PR masterstroke. Once again, the King’s press team appears to be drawing a contrast with how Kate’s medical issue is being handled.
This is where one of the weirder side-conspiracies begins. Kate’s family is very close and they’re not very camera-shy. While James’s holiday post is a good indication that Kate is not at death’s door, people begin to realize that Kate’s parents, Carole and Michael Middleton, haven’t been seen since Kensington Palace announced her surgery.
Every aspect of William’s appearance at the investiture has been broken down and examined by online sleuths. One video showing the prince weaving back and forth on his feet has been shared hundreds of thousands of times on social media. There is speculation that he is unwell or under the influence of something.
It’s hard to draw a concrete conclusion about the fact that Wales’s trip to Sandringham wasn’t photographed. There have been many photographs taken of either William or Kate driving onto and out of the grounds of Windsor park in the past, but it’s definitely not a situation where they’re snapped every day. Furthermore, the Wales children are strictly off-limits when it comes to photographs and they were likely with their parents on the drive.
Again, the King’s message calls to attention the fact that Kate has not released a similar personal message and has only expressed her thanks through official statements.
Many people online have raised questions about the timing of this piece, because it was published in a way that indicated it could have been a recent visit (and therefore could have been taken as “proof” that Kate was up and about).
This fact is only noted to indicate that the Waleses have likely returned to Adelaide Cottage by this point.
A statement from The Prince of Wales pic.twitter.com/LV2jMx75DC
— The Prince and Princess of Wales (@KensingtonRoyal) February 20, 2024
Note: Despite claims from internet sleuths, this is not the first time that one of the Waleses have issued a solo (instead of joint) statement. Kate and William regularly write messages on their own letterhead, and the fact that this statement was just from William should not be taken as a sign of marital trouble in Kensington Palace.
While Pippa’s vacation pictures are a good sign that Kate’s not in serious condition, an update from Kate’s sister calls attention to the fact that the Middleton parents haven’t been seen.
This video immediately prompts questions about why Kate hasn’t done something similar. “Monarchs reading cards” is a tried-and-true format for official royal photos.
This is where the underground conspiracy theories hit the mainstream internet and media. Chaos ensues. Memes ensue. Although the Palace provides guidance that the cause of William’s absence has nothing to do with his wife, this claim is met with great skepticism.
The fact that Kensington Palace let it be known that William’s absence from the memorial was not connected to Kingston’s death is seized upon by conspiracy theorists, as is the fact that Kingston once dated Kate’s sister Pippa Middleton.
It is incredibly rare for a royal press office to officially respond to something like this, let alone respond on the record with quotations attributable to a Kensington Palace spokesperson. This is not standard royal practice.
“Friends” of members of the royal family don’t normally talk to reporters unless they’re given permission by somebody (or they wouldn’t stay friends).
This news being made public only increases speculation by some conspiracy theorists.
The publication of this image only strengthens conspiracy theories about Kate’s health, as many do not believe that it’s actually her in the picture.
Two days later, royal reporter Emily Andrews writes on Twitter that Kensington Palace “exerted huge pressure on the British media” to not publish the image. Nonetheless, theories about why no U.K. outlet will publish the photo flourish online. People also point to the use of the word “authorize” — does that mean that other paparazzi photographs of members of the royal family were authorized?
Ellie Hall is a freelance reporter. She was senior reporter and official royal correspondent for BuzzFeed News from 2013 until the newsroom shut down in April 2023.
Ellie Hall is a freelance reporter. She was senior reporter and official royal correspondent for BuzzFeed News from 2013 until the newsroom shut down in April 2023.
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MLA
Hall, Ellie. ““This is just weird”: BuzzFeed News’ former royals reporter on Kate Middleton, Palace PR, and distrust in the media.” Nieman Journalism Lab. Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard, 7 Mar. 2024. Web. 8 Mar. 2024.
APA
Hall, E. (2024, Mar. 7). “This is just weird”: BuzzFeed News’ former royals reporter on Kate Middleton, Palace PR, and distrust in the media. Nieman Journalism Lab. Retrieved March 8, 2024, from https://www.niemanlab.org/2024/03/this-is-just-weird-buzzfeed-news-former-royals-reporter-on-kate-middleton-palace-press-and-distrust-in-the-media/
Chicago
Hall, Ellie. ““This is just weird”: BuzzFeed News’ former royals reporter on Kate Middleton, Palace PR, and distrust in the media.” Nieman Journalism Lab. Last modified March 7, 2024. Accessed March 8, 2024. https://www.niemanlab.org/2024/03/this-is-just-weird-buzzfeed-news-former-royals-reporter-on-kate-middleton-palace-press-and-distrust-in-the-media/.
Wikipedia
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