The Princess of Wales continued her steady return to royal duties last weekend, attending the Remembrance Sunday service at The Cenotaph in London and the Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall. Kate stood alongside the Duchess of Edinburgh to watch the wreath-laying ceremony from the balcony of the Foreign Office.
Wearing her Catherine Walker military-inspired midi coat, Kate also sported diamond and pearl drop earrings that belonged to the late Queen Elizabeth, as well as her silver Queen's Dragoon Guards brooch in a nod to her role as the regiment's Colonel-in-Chief. She also wore three poppies, which she does every year in honour of her great-grandmother's three brothers, who all died in the First World War.
It was a marked occasion not just because of the sombreness of the event, but also as one of very few public appearances Kate has made this year following her cancer diagnosis. Kate completed chemotherapy treatment in September and made her first step back into royal duties last month when she accompanied William to visit the families of victims of the Southport stabbing.
It comes as no surprise then that all eyes were on the Princess of Wales when she stepped out last weekend – but some of the public critiques of how she looked have been shocking. When pictures of Kate began filtering through on social media, a cruel commentary emerged with trolls picking apart her appearance.
‘Is this the same Kate Middleton who was a breath of fresh air to the #RF not long ago? She looks so unhappy and seems to have aged 40 years in as many months,’ one person wrote on X. ‘Mother of earth, what the hell happened to Kate?’ another said. ‘The poor woman is not even 50 yet & looks like she's going on 60. She's going through some stuff in that family [and] it's showing on her face.’
British TV presenter Narinder Kaur commented on X: ‘Genuine question – why has Kate aged so much? Isn't she only 42? Is she a smoker? It's the only explanation.’ The presenter, who regularly appears on Good Morning Britain and Loose Women, was then subject to intense backlash from those defending Kate, calling her remarks ‘dreadful’ and ‘disgusting’.
Kaur has since apologised, posting a video saying, ‘I put out a stupid tweet, my intention was not to be malicious or nasty… it was stupid to ask about the ageing, I put my hands up and apologise if it caused offence.’
Of course, Kaur was just one of many commenting on Kate’s appearance – find any Instagram post with pictures of the Princess from the weekend and you’ll see countless others leaving disparaging remarks. In fact, even on Google Trends it shows that there has been a spike in searches for ‘Kate Middleton looks tired’, ‘Kate Middleton ageing’ and ‘Kate Middleton looks old’.
It’s a painfully common reaction to any woman in the public eye that doesn’t have the skin of a nine-month-old baby. Apparently, we’re so used to seeing photoshopped, filtered and tweakment-filled faces that anyone who dares to develop even the slightest wrinkle, dark circles or just doesn’t get a great night’s sleep before a photo opp, is subject to intense scrutiny.
What makes this even more depressing is the fact that the public are all very aware of Kate’s health issues this year. Trolling any 42-year-old woman for supposedly looking ‘old’ (which, by the way, she doesn’t at all) is one thing, but when that woman has spent a year battling cancer? Jesus wept; we have truly descended into another realm of cruelty.
Had Kate appeared on that balcony with pristinely taut skin and a youthful glow, the same people would probably be firing off conspiracies about how she secretly underwent surgery during her time out of the public eye. There are, in fact, breakout searches on Google Trends for ‘Kate Middleton plastic surgery’.
All of this comes after Prince William described 2024 as the ‘hardest year’ of his life, saying that Kate’s cancer diagnosis – and his father’s – was understandably dreadful for the family. ‘Trying to get through everything else and keep everything on track has been really difficult,’ he told reporters during his recent visit to South Africa. ‘I’m so proud of my wife, I’m proud of my father, for handling the things that they have done. But from a personal family point of view, it’s been, yeah, it’s been brutal.’
Can we not put our archaic beauty standards to rest for one measly second then, and give the Princess of Wales a break from the constant trolling of her appearance? It might be that, for people who do comment these things online, they don’t expect Kate will ever see them, but even if she doesn’t: we do. When women at large are scrolling social media and see the comment section of any beautiful woman being trolled for having eye bags or fine lines, it further roots into our psyches that visibly ageing makes you somehow less valuable or worthy.
Fighting against beauty standards doesn’t just come in sharing meaningful quotes online or posting ourselves without makeup, it also comes in uplifting other women for however they look at any age. It comes in challenging the opinions of others online who perpetuate ludicrous standards, or just simply keeping your mouth shut when that inner voice of internalised misogyny pops up and makes you think ‘She looks a bit rough, doesn’t she?’
Because that’s the thing, we’re all fighting the same fight here and no one is expected to have absolutely absolved their brain from any unkind thoughts – the perpetuation of the male gaze is, unfortunately, a powerful beast. But what we can do is note those moments we think something that is probably body-shaming or age-shaming or any-other-shaming-that’s-mostly-done-to-women, and clock ourselves before we say it out loud, or online. Not least because it will protect others from unnecessary cruelty, but ultimately yourself too.