The Kate photo scandal has tested the public’s trust. How do the Royals get it back?
CBC
Whether trust has been damaged will only emerge over time, but in ways it appears to have been tested, at least in the short term.
“A little bit has died,” Mark Borkowski, a U.K. public relations expert, said in an interview.
“But the true answer to regain that respect and trust comes with what their big moment is when Kate comes back into her royal duties.”
When exactly that will be is unknown. When Kensington Palace announced Catherine had undergone surgery in January, it was said she would likely be out of the public eye until after Easter.
“I think once Catherine is back in the public eye and on royal walkabouts and able to answer questions even informally about how she’s feeling, I think that will dampen a lot of the speculation,” Carolyn Harris, a Toronto-based royal author and historian, said in an interview.
Catherine’s public profile — pre-surgery — for the Royal Family also appears to be playing into how the speculation has swirled.
“She was everywhere … every front page, every newspaper carried her looking fabulous every day,” said Borkowski.
For more than two months, however, that’s been gone, leaving a void.
‘William wants to protect her’
“The King’s ill. Camilla’s tired,” said Borkowski. “William wants to protect [Catherine]. He hates the media as well, which is the other point.
“He has no empathy with the media’s demands, so he wants to wrap her up in cotton wool and, you know, family first. Of course, that doesn’t really work.”
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/princess-of-wales-rumours-recovery-royal-family-public-trust-1.7144240