Kate and William: adapting to the Insta age

Communicating directly with the public lets the royals circumvent the media machine but it comes with its own perils

Handout photo provided by Kensington Palace of the Princess of Wales with the Prince of Wales and Princess Charlotte in a video issued to mark the end of Catherine's chemotherapy treatment
Handout photo provided by Kensington Palace of the Princess of Wales with the Prince of Wales and Princess Charlotte in a video issued to mark the end of Catherine's chemotherapy treatment
(Image credit: Will Warr / Kensington Palace / PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo)

"In another age, a brisk official bulletin would have sufficed," said James Marriott in The Times. "Or an impassive silence." But people expect more these days, and the Princess of Wales duly obliged last week by releasing a glossy video to mark the end of her chemotherapy treatment and her tentative return to royal duties.

Filmed in the woods and dunes of north Norfolk, it's a video of "remarkable editorial slickness and personal candour". It shows sepia-toned glimpses of family life – the young royals playing on a pile of logs; Kate leaning against a tree, her upturned face lit by sunshine; her and William cuddling. Meanwhile, the princess, in a voice-over, describes her healing process and hopes for the future. With its "filtered, Instagram-worthy look", said Sophie Gallagher in The i Paper, the film could be "a Center Parcs advert or a reimagining of The Famous Five (with a dash of Taylor Swift's 'Folklore')".

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