Emotional video Kate breaks with age-old royal principles

For centuries, the royals have adhered to the principle of the "stiff upper lip" - not letting anything show had top priority. That changed with Kate's emotional video to mark the end of her chemotherapy.

Public expressions of love in a video of the British royals? What was previously unthinkable is now a reality: when the Princess of Wales announced in an Instagram-worthy video that she had completed her chemotherapy, she ventured into previously unknown territory for the royal family: Here, the most popular of the royals, normally known only as Kate, used the tools of social media, complete with soft focus, to share that her life had been derailed by cancer, just like millions of others.

Previously, the royal family had been known for keeping their composure, following the "never complain, never explain" ethos of the late Queen Elizabeth II.

"My focus is to stay cancer free"Princess Kate has finished her chemotherapy

"This is what a family does"

But what's interesting about Kate's video is not just what she says, but how she says it. Unlike previous messages about Kate's health, which sounded like news pieces, this had a very different tone. Released on Monday, the slickly produced mini-movie shows the princess hugging Prince William and her three young children and sharing personal moments at home with her parents. There's even a chaste kiss on her cheek.

"It's a real break," says George Gross, an expert on the history of the royal family at King's College London. "But people won't necessarily recognize it. They'll think: that's just right, that's normal. This is what a family does."

Kate's video is the royal family's latest experiment with more openness since King Charles III ascended to the throne in 2022. That openness has been put to the test repeatedly this year since both Charles and Kate were treated for serious health issues and later announced they were undergoing cancer treatment.

For centuries, the British royal family has withheld news of illness - for fear that it would weaken their authority. This secrecy and secretiveness continued even after the royals became constitutional figures of representation.

In 1952, the British public only learned that King George VI had been suffering from lung cancer after his death. When he died at the age of 56, the official death notice merely stated that the king had "passed away peacefully in his sleep".

Time of death manipulated

King George V died in 1936 after suffering from a cardiopulmonary disease. Instead of speaking openly about the terminally ill king's state of health, palace officials manipulated the time of death for more favorable reporting: diary excerpts published 50 years later revealed that his personal physician had injected him with morphine and cocaine to hasten his death - also to announce it in the morning newspapers "instead of the less suitable evening papers".

Charles deliberately wants to be more open than his mother Elizabeth, who, according to Buckingham Palace, suffered from "mobility problems" in the months before her death.

In January, the palace announced that Charles would be going to a London hospital for treatment of an enlarged prostate. A few weeks later, it was announced that the King would be taking a break from public duties while he underwent treatment for an unspecified type of cancer. However, this was released in factual statements from the palace press office.

But Kate and William, both 42, are part of a new generation that finds it easier to share personal issues on social media. Kate's video was made by William Warr, creative director of Detail Films. According to him, it combines film production techniques with strategic marketing to create "beautiful brand films". "We help brands tell stories to engage their audiences," says the company's website.

In the video, Kate describes how difficult the past nine months have been for her family and expresses her relief at completing her chemotherapy. "Life as you know it can change in a single moment," she says in the video, which was filmed in a wooded area near the family's summer home in Norfolk.

"It's a love story"

Some see the film as an expression of a family sticking together in a crisis. "It's a love story," former BBC royal correspondent Michael Cole told TalkTV. "You can see what it means to a family."

Mark Borkowski, a public relations and crisis communications consultant, describes the film as a "tectonic shift in the way the royal family controls its image": "Kate's journey is profound and deeply personal, but they have learned that emotions can be controlled - and weaponized - in small powerful doses," he says. "By doing this with a polished movie, they retain their dignity and control while still appearing sympathetic."

That the British royals need new techniques for controlling their stories in the age of TikTok and Instagram became clear at the latest when the palace reported on Kate's abdominal surgery in January. While the palace released few details about her condition, social media was rife with speculation. Kate withdrew to concentrate on her recovery.

Return to the public eye

When the Princess announced two months later that she had been diagnosed with cancer, she addressed the public directly in a depressing video, asking for "time, space and privacy" during her treatment. In June, she released a video update in which she said she had good days and bad days. She stayed away from most public duties and has only made two appearances since then - at the King's birthday parade "Trooping the Color" in June and during the men's tennis final at Wimbledon in July, where she received a standing ovation.

Now that her chemotherapy is over, Kate wants to slowly return to the public eye and "make a few more public appearances" in the coming months. But in the video, she said the road to full recovery was long and she would "take each day as it comes".

The video should be seen as part of the royal's efforts to present the royals more openly to gain support for the monarchy, Gross said. "It's an operation - of the whole company together," he says.

dpa