Conspiracy theories over Kate Middleton’s cancer resurfaced on social media as the Princess of Wales joined William and King Charles at a Remembrance event in London Saturday. The event made her first formal appearance since finishing her chemotherapy but social media users again started their theories that Kate either never had cancer or she exaggerated her health situation.
These conspiracy theories have their roots in Sky News Australia’s royal correspondent Rhiannon Mills’ comments that she made in September: “In March the princess confirmed that pre-cancerous cells had been found following abdominal surgery and that she would have to undergo a course of preventative chemotherapy.” Mills wrote this as part of the report that covered Kate’s announcement that she was cancer free.
‘My intention was not to be nasty’: Viral post’s writer Narinder Kaur apologizes
All these started with a post made by TV presenter Narinder Kaur who commented on Kate Middleton’s looks at the Remembrance event and posted: “Genuine question — why has Kate aged so much? Isn’t she only 42? Is she a smoker? It’s the only explanation.” Narinder posted and then drew a huge backlash.
51-year-old Narinder is a Good Morning Britain panelist and a former Big Brother contestant. She appears as a commentator of shows including GMB, GB News and Loose Women.
Social media users schooled Kaur and informed her that Kate Middleton underwent cancer treatment and that was the point when many started regurgitating the conspiracy theory that she actually never had cancer.
“My brother had cancer…he didn’t age like that,” Kaur replied defiantly before apologizing.
Later, Kaur said her post was stupid and being nasty was not her intention but she received “sexual, racist and violent” abuse because of her post.
“I thought I’d do a quick video instead of tweet after tweet, because it becomes pretty ridiculous – as if it wasn’t ridiculous enough already.
“I put out a stupid tweet. That wasn’t my intention, my intention was not to be malicious or nasty or anything.
“I’m not like that, anybody who knows me. It was stupid to ask about the ageing. I’ve admitted that, I’ve put my hands up and apologised if it caused offence.
“The only people who were offended though, because many people on Twitter and social media have asked exactly what I’ve asked but did not receive the sexual, racial, violent abuse that I did from accounts with EDL flags, Union Jacks, disgusting abuse,” she said.
Kaur said her brother “went through brutal treatment of chemo” when he was suffering from cancer before his death and claimed she wouldn’t have made remarks about Kate’s appearance with regard to her cancer diagnosis. She also talked about Kate’s privilege of not having to work during the treatment. She said she was attacked only because she was a brown woman from India and had the gall to comment about the looks of Kate Middleton. She said she never spoke about cancer or Meghan Markle but the debate plunged into something different exposing her to online threats.