When the Princess of Wales broke the news of her cancer diagnosis to the world on March 22, there was shock, sympathy and also plenty of anger at the rather distasteful circus of rumours that had plagued the British Royal family for weeks before that.
Sections of the media and across social media in particular, conspiracy theories swirled and spread. Was she dead? Was she divorcing William? Was something even more sinister happening?
Read the full story here: https://gulfnews.com/opinion/op-eds/kate-middleton-princess-of-wales-breaks-the-cancer-stigma-1.101926962
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#UAEnews #cancer #KateMiddleton
Sections of the media and across social media in particular, conspiracy theories swirled and spread. Was she dead? Was she divorcing William? Was something even more sinister happening?
Read the full story here: https://gulfnews.com/opinion/op-eds/kate-middleton-princess-of-wales-breaks-the-cancer-stigma-1.101926962
See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos
Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km
Subscribe to Gulf News on YouTube and watch more of our videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/GulfNewsTV
#UAEnews #cancer #KateMiddleton
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NewsTranscript
00:00When the Princess of Wales announced her cancer diagnosis to the world in March, it was a
00:08shock for everyone. Up until then, we had seen weeks and weeks of conspiracy theories
00:14and all kinds of rumours flooding social media about what had happened to Kate Middleton.
00:19In hindsight, perhaps the palace could have handled it better by being more upfront about
00:23her health challenges, without necessarily revealing all the details of her medical issues
00:28and her medical history. But that's where the dilemma comes in when it comes to public
00:32figures and whether they have a right to privacy, especially about their health. Actually, everyone
00:38has a right to privacy when it comes to your health, especially when it comes to a disease
00:42like cancer. Cancer, of course, is not a death sentence for everyone any longer. There are
00:48newer treatments, better treatments which are out there and many people do recover,
00:53but it is still a dreaded disease and the diagnosis not only affects the patient or
00:58the person who has it, but their families and their support structure as well. So how
01:03they choose to share this information is their own choice. But at the same time, if a public
01:10figure is someone who holds a constitutional office, like the president or the prime minister
01:15of a country, I believe that it is imperative and that people do have a right to know what
01:21the medical challenges are that they are facing, what their diagnosis is, what the
01:25outlook is. Now, the Americans are quite transparent about that. We see health updates about President
01:30Biden quite regularly. He just had his physical back in February, where the doctor gave us
01:35all kinds of details, including about his sleep apnea. There was a debate about the
01:41same thing in India when Sonia Gandhi wasn't well several years ago. But while she was
01:45a politician and was very much in the public eye, she wasn't holding a constitutional post.
01:52So where it affects somebody who's in office and possibly how they function, how they lead
01:58a country or do their job, I do think it's imperative for greater transparency. But hopefully,
02:04as far as the Princess of Wales is concerned, the trolls and the social media conspiracies
02:09will now die down. A lesson here, perhaps, that more transparency, especially in the
02:14digital age, is better for everyone.