‘Highly unusual’: Social media post reveals Palace’s new Princess Kate strategy

One seemingly innocuous social media post has revealed a major development about the Princess of Wales in the wake of her cancer battle.

Oh, how much work can be done by a single letter.

The world would not have known, we would have remained wholly in the dark, blinkers blinkered, completely unaware that Kate, the Princess of Wales was at a theatre in London’s Islington at 2.30pm last week if it had not been for a single, solitary, consequential ‘C’.

And it’s because of that ‘C’ that we know that Kensington Palace seems to be trying out something totally new for the princess, which there is no guarantee will work.

It began late last week when the Prince and Princess of Wales’ X account (formerly Twitter) threw up something highly unusual – a personal message from the 42-year-old mother of three that had nothing to do with her actual royal work. Nor was it about her health or about her kids’ birthdays or saluting some winning sports team or offering a bit of commiseration for some grim natural disaster.

Oh no.

The Palace decided to update us about what the princess was getting up to in her downtime, with it reading simply: “Congratulations and thank you to [English National Ballet] and [Sadler’s Wells theatre] for the wonderfully powerful, moving and inspiring performance of Akram Khan’s Giselle. Creativity at its best! C”

Congratulations and thank you to @ENBallet and @Sadlers_Wells for the wonderfully powerful, moving and inspiring performance of Akram Khan’s Giselle. Creativity at its best! C pic.twitter.com/YbnMd7j9Pi

— The Prince and Princess of Wales (@KensingtonRoyal) September 26, 2024

What next, a tweet when Kate finally begins the final season of Line of Duty? An Insta post when she gets back to her weekly yogalates?

Generally speaking, royal social media posts are for official work and the occasional update like the princess’ cancer revelation, not letting the world know what she is doing to while away a wet Tuesday afternoon.

Last year, Kate took Charlotte to the Royal Ballet and the National Ballet of Canada’s performance of Cinderella, and the only reason anyone knew was that they were spotted in the audience.

First visit to @TheRoyalOpera in @CoventGardenLDN to see #Cinderella. Wonderful ballet with fabulous performances by a great cast. And who should be in the audience? The Princess of Wales with Princess Charlotte and her friends.

— Barbara (@BarbieDavies) April 29, 2023

(Also, aside from a bit of looking at a nice oil painting at the National Portrait Gallery, the Waleses are not exactly known for being great patrons of the arts who have firm views about conductor Sir Simon Rattle or whether the Tate needs even more aspic-ed Damon Hirst sharks for their collection).

The obvious question – what gives, eh guv’nor?

Looking back at 2024, it has been a year of extremes, from great gaping informational maws of black holes when it comes to the royal family – we still don’t even know what sort of cancer Kate actually has – to soul-baring moments of unheard-of emotional candidness. (We are about two videos away from learning what was in Prince George’s report card or the princess’ most private feelings about the closure of Debenhams).

Princess Kate enjoyed a trip to the ballet last week. Picture: Daniel Leal/AFP

In a family, an institution, in a souvenir industrial complex built on the opposing bedfellows of both global visibility and obsessive obfuscation, what this ballet post represents is a third way.

With that ‘C’ we thus enter [trumpeters trumpet off stage] a new middle ground where limited and highly controlled bite-sized pieces of news are carefully doled out into the public sphere about what the Waleses are up to.

For the Princess of Wales, this marks a fresh approach given how spectacularly, astronomically badly the great blackout of early 2024 went, when social media had a collective fit and got so wrapped up in conspiracy theories about her they were about three X posts away from tying her to the moon landing or a grassy knoll.

Kate opened up about her cancer diagnosis earlier this year in an emotional video.

Saying nothing, staying tight-lipped, going all cagey-like, all the time and for weeks and months on end? What 2024 should have taught Crown Inc is that strategy clearly works about as well as a vegan “beef” Wellington.

However, nor can the Palace wheel out highly-produced, slick videos like the recent one announcing the end of Kate’s chemotherapy, which involved three minutes of the most highly stylised productions since Kubrick got out of the game, a butterfly wrangler (truly) and bales of hay brought in for set dressing.

Thus, with our ‘C’, welcome to the novel and thrilling middle ground. Updates about what is going on and what the prince and princess are up to sate our curiosity, sort of tapas-style small plates of information, never quite enough to be wholly satisfying.

The Palace seems to be trying out something similar with William.

Like Kate and her ‘C’, we had the Wales social media team teasing a new and exciting “very special @EarthshotPrize project” involving the Prince of Wales and a camera crew, with a post showing him filming in some particularly scenic woodland. Ooh, err, you tease us so.

Filming for a very special @EarthshotPrize project earlier today ☔️

Watch this space 🌎 pic.twitter.com/yZyyjcPe3I

— The Prince and Princess of Wales (@KensingtonRoyal) September 27, 2024

This new Kensington Palace approach serves a few handy purposes.

Numero uno, reminding the world that William and Kate are out doing work or public-related things and are doers supporting the UK.

Secondly, there is also the helpful benefit of signalling that the Princess of Wales is slowly getting back into the swing of her working life, even if it is far away. Think of this as some very cultured, high-minded signposting.

For Kate, it has been a year of ‘soul-baring moments of unheard-of emotional candidness’.

Thirdly, in the Kate case, it’s a clever instance of informational air traffic control and providing cover. Should she have been spotted by some eagle-eyed Londoner in the back of her no doubt heavily armoured Range Rover, as she was in March this year with William amid the fever dream of Kategate, the blurry image of a princess-shaped blob would not have sent the internet spiralling off into tinfoil hat territory, but would be wholly explicable.

Call it a healthy dose of prevention spoonfed via social media burst.

There is one other detail worth considering about this Kate outing, specifically about the degree of comparative freedom that today’s members of the royal family have when it comes to photographers and the press.

Consider for an instant how incredible it is that one of, if not the most photographed woman in the world could have a lovely jubbly day out in central London and not a single shot appeared anywhere. We would have been none the wiser if not for that post.

It’s all very civilised stuff. And if Kate should happen to want to spend a quiet hour here or there with a Hirst shark, well so be it.

Personally, I’d suggest some quality time with the Tate’s Turners instead.

Daniela Elser is a writer, editor and a royal commentator with more than 15 years’ experience working with a number of Australia’s leading media titles