KFAI’s ‘True Brit’ addresses Kate Middleton’s mysterious absence
Catherine, Princess of Wales and William, Prince of Wales arrive at the Coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla in 2023.
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All around the world, people are asking the question: Where’s Kate?
We’re talking, of course, about the Princess of Wales, Kate Middleton.
In January, a statement from the palace stated she had undergone abdominal surgery and would return to public engagements after two weeks. However, when two months went by without a public appearance from the Princess of Wales, a multitude of theories began circulating, from cosmetic surgery to a potential affair.
People around the world became suspicious when the palace put out a photo of Kate and her kids on U.K. Mother’s Day that had visibly altered in Photoshop. It was so egregious that many global media companies wouldn’t publish the photo.
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Simon Husbands was born and raised in the U.K., moving to the U.S. in 1997. He keeps in touch with his roots by hosting True Brit! on KFAI radio. Husbands joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer to weigh in on what’s going on with the Princess of Wales — and what the larger implications might be.
Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.
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Audio transcript
CATHY WURZER: Just before we went on the air, I was checking my feed on X-- formerly Twitter-- and the hashtags RoyalAnnouncement and BuckinghamPalace are trending. There are unsubstantiated reports there will be some kind of announcement today from the royal family. And speculation ranges from King Charles abdicating the throne because of his health to some kind of announcement about the Princess of Wales' future.
There are all kinds of theories out there about Kate, and they've been fueled by her public absence the past two months. Normally, we wouldn't care a whit about any of this. But it's gotten to the point where we feel our journalistic duty won't let us stay silent. To weigh in on the global gossip, we wanted to talk to a native Brit. Joining us right now is Simon Husbands. He's the host of True Brit on KFAI Radio in the Twin Cities. Simon, welcome.
Thank you, Cathy. That's a lovely welcome, and it is very, very interesting what's going on in the UK. And between you and me, I fear the worst. I think what we're going to see is notification of a split between Prince William and Princess Catherine. That's what I think is going to happen.
CATHY WURZER: Simon, Simon, what? I hadn't even thought of something like that. What leads you to maybe think this, perhaps?
SIMON HUSBANDS: So, the whole thing about the photograph, just is like a rabbit hole, you know? And I think 20 years ago, if you'd have seen a photo like that, you wouldn't have thought twice, anything about it. You would have just said, OK, thank you, Kensington Palace for giving us that lovely Mother's Day photo. We'll just post it up there.
But obviously, now we live in a very complicated world where you almost can't believe anything that you see anymore. So some eagle-eyed editor at The Associated Press, or whoever the photo was handed to, figured out that it had been doctored. And they looked at the metadata and they figured out yes, it's been doctored a couple of times. And so then they're saying, well, why has it been doctored?
And it's weird, because she's not been seen in public since Christmas. And the palace always said OK, she's going to clear her calendars for a quick and speedy recovery, although they never actually said what the issue was. It's going on longer than people thought. She was due to attend the Trooping of the Colour, which is a big kind of horsey thing that happens. All the horses parade past and traditionally the queen, the queen or the king will go and check them out.
Well, she was due to do that. But her name has now been removed from the website advertising her appearance of that. And some people are saying, well, you know, it's because they advertised it a little bit too quickly. They weren't, didn't have it confirmed. But there are rumors, of course, about Will's behavior, rumors of adultery.
We don't know what the abdominal thing was that she had done back at the turn of the year. I think-- just reading between the lines-- I think she is depressed. And maybe she has some-- I don't know, maybe she's become anorexic. Maybe her depression, these are all signs that we saw in princess Diana, of course.
CATHY WURZER: I was just going to say, you see parallels to princess Diana in this.
SIMON HUSBANDS: Yeah, I do. I do. And so it would not surprise me, Cathy, if they announced that the Princess Catherine was anorexic. If that's the case, that would explain why the photo had been doctored. I think it was a picture of her from a much earlier time, a few years back that she probably looked at the photo and thought aw, I don't look very good. So I'm going to put something on there and just slapped an old picture of herself on there.
But if you if you further look at the picture, you can see she hasn't got a wedding ring on, which is very unusual considering the ring that she traditionally wears. So it's all very odd. And again, in light of the suspicions that Will had an affair a few years back, it wouldn't surprise me at all to know that she is either going to separate from William or at least she's going to step back from her royal duties, which is a great shame, because she is beloved by the British people.
Everybody loves her. There was a poll came out a couple of weeks ago that said the British public's favorite royal was princess Kate-- Kate Middleton, they love her. And then second to that was Will. And so she's the favorite. And so everybody is very concerned about this. But I think that's what we're going to hear when they do actually come and announce something.
CATHY WURZER: Do you-- what do your friends say about King Charles? I mean, he also is having his own issues, and we really don't know much about him either.
SIMON HUSBANDS: I know. It's very odd. There's so many odd things happening at the moment with the royal family. It seems to me, if you've got cancer, then you kind of tell people what kind of cancer you have. I mean, it doesn't really do any good to anybody to say yeah, I've got cancer and I'm getting treatment because it doesn't give you any indication as to what kind of cancer he's got, if it's life-threatening, will it impact the throne?
You mentioned about possibly him abdicating. I don't think that's going to happen unless there's some really serious cancer that he's got that simply has only given him a year to live or something like that. And I don't think that's the case. He's been moving back into some kind of public duty performances. He's been meeting with the prime minister every week, I think, and going into London every week for treatment. But he seems like he's doing OK. He's been looking fit.
But as we talk about King Charles and Photoshopping images, I personally would like every image of King Charles to be Photoshopped to make him look more attractive. So that's my own personal opinion.
CATHY WURZER: [LAUGHING] Simon.
SIMON HUSBANDS: Maybe we could put Kate Middleton on doing some Photoshopping on King Charles.
CATHY WURZER: Well, she seems so good at it. You know, final question would be, you'd think the palace would do something to calm the conspiracies, or do they just hope it just goes away?
SIMON HUSBANDS: Yeah, I think the latter is the case. It's very odd that people said, well, you know, this image has obviously been doctored. Why don't you just show us the original image? Well, if she's anorexic, or if she's had bad plastic surgery, there's some reason why she won't allow that picture of herself-- that image of herself-- to come out. And, of course, with the palace-- with Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace, it's all about appearances.
People want their princess to look young and vibrant and youthful. And I fear that at the moment, she may not do. Maybe she's suffering with depression and just feels really badly about herself. But I do think it was a mistake to allow that image to go out. I think it would have been much better if they would have just put out a personal message from her and just left it at that, frankly.
CATHY WURZER: Now your show is mostly music, but have you been talking about this on your radio show at all?
SIMON HUSBANDS: Well, my show, we're not very polite about people. We do everything with a sense of humor, and it's terrible. I guess I can wish my-- kiss my knighthood goodbye, because if the royal family listen to True Brit, they would-- yes, they probably wouldn't like it very much. But we do talk about stuff like that. But in this case, it's such a frustrating story because there's no answers to any of the puzzles that people are coming up with every day.
And it's gotten to the point where people now are looking at pictures of William and Kate driving away from Windsor and analyzing the pattern of the bricks through the car windows. It's just ridiculous. And we're never going to find out. At least, I don't think we'll find out unless some years down the line Kate writes a memoir and says OK, this is what was going on. This is what we did, this. Is why we did this.
CATHY WURZER: Oh.
SIMON HUSBANDS: So it's-- like I said at the start of our chat, it's like a rabbit hole. The further down you dig, the more frustrating it gets because there are no answers to anything.
CATHY WURZER: Well, Simon, we'll see what happens. You were so kind to join us. Thank you so much.
SIMON HUSBANDS: My pleasure, Cathy, take care.
CATHY WURZER: Simon Husbands, the host of True Brit on KFAI. You can hear him on air Saturday nights from midnight to 2:00 AM.
There are all kinds of theories out there about Kate, and they've been fueled by her public absence the past two months. Normally, we wouldn't care a whit about any of this. But it's gotten to the point where we feel our journalistic duty won't let us stay silent. To weigh in on the global gossip, we wanted to talk to a native Brit. Joining us right now is Simon Husbands. He's the host of True Brit on KFAI Radio in the Twin Cities. Simon, welcome.
Thank you, Cathy. That's a lovely welcome, and it is very, very interesting what's going on in the UK. And between you and me, I fear the worst. I think what we're going to see is notification of a split between Prince William and Princess Catherine. That's what I think is going to happen.
CATHY WURZER: Simon, Simon, what? I hadn't even thought of something like that. What leads you to maybe think this, perhaps?
SIMON HUSBANDS: So, the whole thing about the photograph, just is like a rabbit hole, you know? And I think 20 years ago, if you'd have seen a photo like that, you wouldn't have thought twice, anything about it. You would have just said, OK, thank you, Kensington Palace for giving us that lovely Mother's Day photo. We'll just post it up there.
But obviously, now we live in a very complicated world where you almost can't believe anything that you see anymore. So some eagle-eyed editor at The Associated Press, or whoever the photo was handed to, figured out that it had been doctored. And they looked at the metadata and they figured out yes, it's been doctored a couple of times. And so then they're saying, well, why has it been doctored?
And it's weird, because she's not been seen in public since Christmas. And the palace always said OK, she's going to clear her calendars for a quick and speedy recovery, although they never actually said what the issue was. It's going on longer than people thought. She was due to attend the Trooping of the Colour, which is a big kind of horsey thing that happens. All the horses parade past and traditionally the queen, the queen or the king will go and check them out.
Well, she was due to do that. But her name has now been removed from the website advertising her appearance of that. And some people are saying, well, you know, it's because they advertised it a little bit too quickly. They weren't, didn't have it confirmed. But there are rumors, of course, about Will's behavior, rumors of adultery.
We don't know what the abdominal thing was that she had done back at the turn of the year. I think-- just reading between the lines-- I think she is depressed. And maybe she has some-- I don't know, maybe she's become anorexic. Maybe her depression, these are all signs that we saw in princess Diana, of course.
CATHY WURZER: I was just going to say, you see parallels to princess Diana in this.
SIMON HUSBANDS: Yeah, I do. I do. And so it would not surprise me, Cathy, if they announced that the Princess Catherine was anorexic. If that's the case, that would explain why the photo had been doctored. I think it was a picture of her from a much earlier time, a few years back that she probably looked at the photo and thought aw, I don't look very good. So I'm going to put something on there and just slapped an old picture of herself on there.
But if you if you further look at the picture, you can see she hasn't got a wedding ring on, which is very unusual considering the ring that she traditionally wears. So it's all very odd. And again, in light of the suspicions that Will had an affair a few years back, it wouldn't surprise me at all to know that she is either going to separate from William or at least she's going to step back from her royal duties, which is a great shame, because she is beloved by the British people.
Everybody loves her. There was a poll came out a couple of weeks ago that said the British public's favorite royal was princess Kate-- Kate Middleton, they love her. And then second to that was Will. And so she's the favorite. And so everybody is very concerned about this. But I think that's what we're going to hear when they do actually come and announce something.
CATHY WURZER: Do you-- what do your friends say about King Charles? I mean, he also is having his own issues, and we really don't know much about him either.
SIMON HUSBANDS: I know. It's very odd. There's so many odd things happening at the moment with the royal family. It seems to me, if you've got cancer, then you kind of tell people what kind of cancer you have. I mean, it doesn't really do any good to anybody to say yeah, I've got cancer and I'm getting treatment because it doesn't give you any indication as to what kind of cancer he's got, if it's life-threatening, will it impact the throne?
You mentioned about possibly him abdicating. I don't think that's going to happen unless there's some really serious cancer that he's got that simply has only given him a year to live or something like that. And I don't think that's the case. He's been moving back into some kind of public duty performances. He's been meeting with the prime minister every week, I think, and going into London every week for treatment. But he seems like he's doing OK. He's been looking fit.
But as we talk about King Charles and Photoshopping images, I personally would like every image of King Charles to be Photoshopped to make him look more attractive. So that's my own personal opinion.
CATHY WURZER: [LAUGHING] Simon.
SIMON HUSBANDS: Maybe we could put Kate Middleton on doing some Photoshopping on King Charles.
CATHY WURZER: Well, she seems so good at it. You know, final question would be, you'd think the palace would do something to calm the conspiracies, or do they just hope it just goes away?
SIMON HUSBANDS: Yeah, I think the latter is the case. It's very odd that people said, well, you know, this image has obviously been doctored. Why don't you just show us the original image? Well, if she's anorexic, or if she's had bad plastic surgery, there's some reason why she won't allow that picture of herself-- that image of herself-- to come out. And, of course, with the palace-- with Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace, it's all about appearances.
People want their princess to look young and vibrant and youthful. And I fear that at the moment, she may not do. Maybe she's suffering with depression and just feels really badly about herself. But I do think it was a mistake to allow that image to go out. I think it would have been much better if they would have just put out a personal message from her and just left it at that, frankly.
CATHY WURZER: Now your show is mostly music, but have you been talking about this on your radio show at all?
SIMON HUSBANDS: Well, my show, we're not very polite about people. We do everything with a sense of humor, and it's terrible. I guess I can wish my-- kiss my knighthood goodbye, because if the royal family listen to True Brit, they would-- yes, they probably wouldn't like it very much. But we do talk about stuff like that. But in this case, it's such a frustrating story because there's no answers to any of the puzzles that people are coming up with every day.
And it's gotten to the point where people now are looking at pictures of William and Kate driving away from Windsor and analyzing the pattern of the bricks through the car windows. It's just ridiculous. And we're never going to find out. At least, I don't think we'll find out unless some years down the line Kate writes a memoir and says OK, this is what was going on. This is what we did, this. Is why we did this.
CATHY WURZER: Oh.
SIMON HUSBANDS: So it's-- like I said at the start of our chat, it's like a rabbit hole. The further down you dig, the more frustrating it gets because there are no answers to anything.
CATHY WURZER: Well, Simon, we'll see what happens. You were so kind to join us. Thank you so much.
SIMON HUSBANDS: My pleasure, Cathy, take care.
CATHY WURZER: Simon Husbands, the host of True Brit on KFAI. You can hear him on air Saturday nights from midnight to 2:00 AM.
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