by Christos Zabounis

When you’ve spent half your life feeding the press with your image and you disappear for about three months, it’s only natural for the ether to feel deprived, both for news producers and consumers. Also, when you have learned from your husband’s grandmother, in this case Queen Elizabeth II, to apply the mantra “never explain, never complain”, then you are not in a hurry to explain the reasons for your absence from the public sphere. Finally, when you are under unbearable pressure to satisfy the folk’s need for the truth, you don’t do it by “teasing” a photo like any amateur photographer would do. Of course, due to her position, the Princess of Wales is not obliged, like her father-in-law, to inform the public about the state of her health. After all, it is not provided for in the order of succession. No1 is Charles, no2 William and no3 George. The main reason the entire planet has taken up the matter lies in the effects her illness may have on the next king and would-be heir. The failed attempt to calm the spirits with the amateurish editing of the famous photo, which showed her in great health, was rectified with her touching video message a few days later from the Windsor bench. The “regular” people bowed to the image of the vulnerable mother of three who suffers from cancer and thanks those who come to her side, while asking, at the same time, for some peace in her private life. She could have done it sooner and stopped the conspiracy theories that wanted her dead. But what if that was not possible? Isn’t secrecy part of the very identity of the institution, after all?