Prince William & Kate Middleton Want to 'Control the Narrative' After a Year of PR Mistakes

When Prince William and Kate Middleton released their cinematic video on Monday, Sept. 9 to share the good news about the end of her cancer treatment, the internet went wild about the romantic look at their life together. Gone were the stiff, formal portraits that the royal family usually shares, the Prince and Princess of Wales officially ushered in a new generation of media.

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As successful as the clip was, it’s hard not to look back at how they got here. Kate was thrown to the wolves earlier this year by the palace while she was seeking medical privacy about her cancer diagnosis. She had every right to keep her news private while she processed the journey that lay ahead of her. Still, the royal communications team let her get run over by a bus in the press — narratives that she was missing, that she was divorcing William, and that he had reignited his alleged affair with Rose Hanbury were rampant. Not once did a royal spokesperson try to stop the freight train while Kate was undergoing a terrifying time in her life.

Well, the Wales family is telling everyone that the PR mistakes stop here and now. “They wanted to leave nothing to chance this time,” NBC News royal contributor Emily Nash told the media outlet. “I think that with the difficulties of the past year, William and Kate have understood that they do need to control the narrative to a degree.” She described the video as “a really stylish and beautiful way of doing this.”

Some critics would say that Kate and William took a page from their royal rivals — yes, that would be Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, who have used their positive U.S. press overage to their advantage. One look at the Sussexes’ recent trips to Nigeria and Columbia shows that a goodwill tour goes a long way in generating feel-good headlines — and that is exactly what Kate and William are looking for as they get back to their royal duties. “Inevitably, meanwhile, the same critics who detest Harry and Meghan’s barefoot California content decline to look at the style of the Waleses’ video and consider that the Meghanisation of the royal family continues apace,” wrote The Guardian ‘s Marina Hyde.

The Prince and Princess of Wales want to be seen as relaxed, fun, and in love — a story that has sometimes evaded them as Harry and Meghan usually get the PDA angle . By giving royal fans, a curated, behind-the-scenes look at their lives, they are projecting an image to wipe away the bad memories that kicked off the year. A new Kate and William era is here!

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