Why So Many Of Us Are Obsessed With The Kate Middleton ‘Disappearance’ Drama

The internet’s fascination with 'missing' white women strikes again. (Though that's not the only reason #Kategate has gone viral.)

What’s going on with Kate Middleton?

This week, even non-royal-watchers were begrudgingly curious about the “disappearance” of the future queen consort.

Kate, the Princess of Wales, has been the subject of internet speculation after followers of the royal family noticed that, outside two grainy paparazzi photos, Middleton hadn’t been spotted in public since Christmas Day 2023, when she attended a church service at Sandringham.

Kensington Palace announced in January that she underwent a planned abdominal surgery and would be unlikely to return to public duties until after Easter, but internet sleuths weren’t satisfied.

Is she really convalescing from abdominal surgery or had the princess undergone plastic surgery she wanted to keep on the down low? Is she actually in a medically-induced coma and are all those grainy photos doctored? That March 4 photo of Middleton being driven by her mother, Carole Middleton, near Windsor Castle looked suspicious, some said.