ROBERT JOBSON: William's one misstep ignited the wild conspiracy theories. But ... trends now
At last, a little daylight is let in upon the magic.
A smiling Princess of Wales is spotted – and filmed - looking happy and healthy while out on a shopping trip with William near their Windsor home.
So much for the daft doubters.
For once, a couple who like to guard their privacy, didn’t seem to mind being pictured - by a member of the public on their iPhone who had spotted them in the bread aisle at the Windsor Farm Shop.
The Mother's Day portrait that was edited by the Princess of Wales to make the perfect family shot
Will this demonstrably authentic sighting silence the bonkers conspiracy theorists?Or the weird wearers of ‘Free Kate’ T-shirts (a strange nod to the strict US legal regime that once constrained pop star Britney Spears)?
Not completely. This is the internet, after all.
But the new video footage will go a long way towards hauling the national conversation back on to the rails of sanity.
I have sympathy for the Waleses, who have steadfastly refused to issue updates on Kate’s health.
Their Kensington Palace press office announced that she has undergone abdominal surgery and is unlikely to be back on royal duty until after Easter. Nothing more.
Some things are surely private, you might think. Why feed the beast?
Kate alongside William leaving Windsor Castle just hours after she apologised for digitally editing the Mother’s Day photo
Besides, wasn’t it the great constitutional writer Walter Bagehot who warned about keeping the ‘magic’ of royalty safe from intrusive daylight?
If Kensington Palace has been understandably reticent, however, it has also been maladroit.
The botched handling of the Waleses’ privacy helped create a media storm with its own global momentum.
Which is why I’m glad that, a little late in the day, William and Kate appear to have heeded the wise words of the late Queen Elizabeth: that she must be seen to be believed.
Kate had not been seen since Christmas Day at church in Sandringham.
The context is important here, of course.
Driven by the loss of his mother, Diana, William's dance with the media has been long and fraught. Who could blame him for mounting a fierce guard over his young family and its privacy?
In contrast, the King has continued with official duties despite his cancer treatment, issuing pictures and video footage along the way.
Yet most people have understood the Wales’s reasons for staying quiet.
What they did not understand was William’s sudden and unexpected decision to absent himself from last month’s memorial service for King Constantine II at St George’s Chapel.
The Prince pulled out at extremely short notice even though Constantine had been his Godfather and William was due to give a reading.
The late Queen Elizabeth would have never abandoned an engagement so abruptly. It is really not the sort of behaviour we expect from the Royal Family.
Elizabeth’s cousin, Prince Michael of Kent, showed an admirable sense of duty by attending that
