Smiling and strolling with her husband, a new image of the Princess of Wales will reassure fans she is making a good recovery from her abdominal surgery. The picture captured by a member of the public on Saturday shows William, 41, and Kate, 42, visiting the Windsor Farm Shop, a short drive from their Berkshire home.
Looking healthy, happy and relaxed, the princess carries her own shopping bag and laughingly chats with her husband as the pair exit the shop and return to their car, according to the image published by The Sun. They were not accompanied by their three children, Prince George, ten, Princess Charlotte, eight, and five-year-old Prince Louis.
The couple have, in recent weeks, been left deeply distressed by wild social media speculation and gossip about Kate’s health and whereabouts. This has since been reported by publications ranging from the New York Times to British Vogue – and even become the subject of cruel mockery on prime time American television.
Global superstars such as Kim Kardashian have added fuel to the fire with posts about Kate’s ‘disappearance’ to their millions of fans. The debacle over the princess’ well-meaning Mother’s Day photograph, which she later admitted to having tried to edit, only added to the swirl of speculation.
This was preceded by William’s sudden announcement he was pulling out of his godfather’s memorial service last month on what was only described as a ‘personal matter’ just 45 minutes before he had been due to give a reading. Against the backdrop of the King’s cancer diagnosis, the drama has created a febrile atmosphere of gossip and conjecture around the Royal Family.
Sources close to the Wales’ have told the Mail they have found the speculation hugely hurtful and hard to deal with, but were determined to focus on what was important to them – their family and the princess’ recovery. It is anticipated that the new image, showing the couple going about their normal lives, will go some way to calming many of the wilder rumours that have gripped people across the globe.
The snap was taken at 12.43pm on Saturday by a member of the public who was also at the farm shop, just a mile’s drive from the Wales’ Adelaide Cottage home, on their Apple iPhone 12 Pro phone. The person concerned said they were visiting the shop to ‘kill time’ while on the way to meet someone to buy an item from Facebook when they recognised William and Kate and were struck by how ‘happy’ they looked.