On Friday, the Princess of Wales, née Kate Middleton, revealed that she had been diagnosed with cancer following an abdominal operation in January. Unfortunately, the announcement was not exactly made by choice; the princess, who had been absent from public duties following her surgery, had been the victim of an onslaught of conspiracy theories which had polluted the media landscape and seeped into outlets like Stephen Colbert’s Late Show and The New York Times.
Some rumors were harmless but stupid; one common suggestion was that the princess had received cosmetic surgery, such as a Kardashian-esque Brazilian Butt Lift. Others were far more unflattering towards the royal family. One batch of whispers claimed that Prince William and Kate Middleton were divorcing, with the Prince of Wales running off with the Marchioness of Cholmondeley (despite any evidence of an affair between the two). Others were even more outlandish and cruel: Prince William was physically abusive and Kate was recuperating in the hospital, with supposed internet sleuths pointing at two times she recently sported bandages on her fingers and Prince Harry’s accusation that he had been pushed to the ground by the angered heir. This was promoted as the top theory on Ask Reddit, which has 45 million members.
Though March marked the pinnacle of the media attention, speculation about the princess’s health started as early as January. By February, they grew louder.
Then, at last it seemed like there was “proof of life” image of the princess. A photographer managed to get photos of Kate in a car with her mother. The palace put pressure on the British media to boycott printing the shots, but California-based TMZ had no such scruples.
But the rumors did not stop — unsatisfied social media users claimed it was a wax figure of the princess (yes, really) or the photo was actually of Kate’s sister, Pippa.
As internet pressure continued to mount, the palace released a photo of Kate with her children in honor of Mother’s Day (the British date for the holiday is in March). But this made everything worse when several photo agencies, including Reuters and the AP, issued a kill order following evidence that the picture had been photoshopped.
With bad press reaching a fever pitch, the palace tried to win some positive pr again, this time by having Kate seen out in public on a short shopping trip with her husband. A bystander took grainy video footage. But even this was not enough; accusations abounded that the woman was not Kate.
While social media was the biggest culprit, traditional media was not immune. A Spanish tabloid claimed that Kate was in a coma. Then, three separate medical personnel tried to hack into the princess’s medical records to sell them to the press. The cancer announcement followed shortly after, likely as a way to stave off further intrusion.
But Kate is not the first British female celebrity to “disappear;” nor her disappearance the first to spark wild conspiracy theories. Nearly 100 years ago, famed mystery Agatha Christie stole headlines for the same reasons.
The Eleven Day Disappearance
On the night of December 3, 1926, Agatha Christie kissed her 7-year-old daughter, Rosalind, on the head and then jumped into her Morris Cowley and drove off into the night. She was supposedly driving to Yorkshire following a tumultuous time in her life. Professionally, her star was rising; she had just published The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, which had earned her strong sales and reviews. But personally, things were very different. Christie’s marriage to Colonel Archibald Christie, a former World War I fighter pilot, had been strained by his infidelity and desire for a divorce. She was grappling with feelings of betrayal and abandonment, compounded by financial difficulties and the loss of her mother in April.
In the morning, Christie’s car was found crashed and abandoned on the side of the road near a chalk pit in Surrey. According to The New York Times, the lights were still on, and some clothing and her driving license were left behind. Police called a search, believing the injured author was somewhere nearby. But they did not find her.
As news of Christie's disappearance spread, newspapers across the country ran sensational headlines, speculating on the fate of the missing author with theories that ranged from the plausible to the outlandish. Some speculated that she had succumbed to amnesia or suffered a mental breakdown brought on by the stresses of her personal life – the former of which was advanced by her husband. Others suggested more sinister possibilities, including abduction or foul play.
But after three days, the county police called off the search, citing a letter she had written to her brother-in-law which mentioned a trip to a Yorkshire spa. It seemed as if the case was closed – but it wasn’t. Following public pressure, the police search was not only resumed, but increased to include a force of 500 men, assisted with airplanes and trained dogs. In addition, between 10,000 and 15,000 individuals joined the search effort. Amidst mounting rumors, the police speculated that Christie could be in London, possibly disguised in male attire. Whispers circulated about a sealed envelope allegedly left behind, to be opened only in the event of her demise. One particularly dramatic rumor was that Christie had mentioned to a friend that remaining at her home, Sunningdale, would “be the end of me.”
With each passing day, the mystery deepened, as sightings and alleged encounters with a woman resembling Christie were reported from London to Harrogate. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, of Sherlock Holmes fame, even sponsored a seánce to help find the missing authoress.
Meanwhile, police started looking into Christie’s latest manuscript, “The Blue Train,” to ascertain any clues to her whereabouts.
Come December 14th, police finally came across a new clue: a series of items near the crash site. These included “a bottle labeled poison lead and opium, fragments of a torn-up postcard, a woman’s fur-lined coat, a box of face powder, the end of a loaf of bread, a cardboard box and two children’s books.”
The bottle of poison understandably grabbed the public’s attention, as well as the new and ominous news from authorities:
“The police have information which they refuse to divulge and which leads them to the view that Mrs. Christie had no intention of returning when she left home.”
Then, just as suddenly as she had vanished, Agatha Christie reappeared. She was discovered safe but disoriented, having checked into the Swan Hydropathic Hotel in Harrogate under an assumed name – the last name was perhaps not-so-coincidentally the same as her husband’s mistress.
She had been out dancing each night, telling strangers she was newly arrived from South Africa. It was a musician in the band that recognized her and alerted the police. Her reappearance sparked another media frenzy, with reporters clamoring for answers to the questions that had consumed them for weeks. But they received few answers – just that Christie had suffered from amnesia after hitting her head in the car accident.
In the aftermath of her disappearance, Christie herself remained tight-lipped about the details of her ordeal, offering only vague explanations and cryptic comments to the press. Speculation continued to swirl, with some suggesting that her disappearance was a carefully orchestrated publicity stunt or a bid for attention, while others argued that it was a genuine cry for help from a woman grappling with personal demons.
KateGate
Of course, there are several differences between the Princess of Wales and the tale of Agatha Christie. According to Jared Cade’s “Agatha Christie and the Eleven Missing Days,” Christie wanted national attention as a way to ruin her husband’s romantic weekend with his mistress, whereas Kate had clearly desired privacy on the matter. Moreover, while Christie claimed amnesia and a head injury, her physical repercussions are certainly not on par with surgery and a cancer diagnosis.
But other elements of the two cases are strikingly similar. For example, evidence that should have satiated the public — Christie’s letter to her brother-in-law and videos of Kate up and about — only served to stir the pot even more. To this day, Christopher Bouzy, a Sussex ally with hundreds of thousands of followers who appeared on Harry and Meghan’s Netflix show as an “expert on internet hate,” has maintained that the video of the Princess of Wales shopping with her husband is actually a body double.
Another similarity is the number of celebrities who waded into the two affairs. For Agatha Christie, fellow mystery writer Dorothy Sayers actually visited the scene of the car crash as well as the aforementioned Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In Kate’s case, social media stars like Kim Kardashian posted about being “off to find Kate,” while actress Blake Lively jokingly uploaded a clearly photoshopped ad for her beverage brand with a tongue and cheek caption about how she’s been “missing.”
A third similarity is the global reach of the two cases. Christie’s disappearance managed to hit the front page of The New York Times, and rumors about her suicide, which were based purely on conjecture, made their way into papers from Miami to Minneapolis.
With the advent of the internet, KateGate was even worse. Per The Guardian:
“According to BrandMentions, a company that monitors the spread of hashtags and keywords online, over the past seven days the hashtags #whereiskate #katebodydouble and #katemiddleton have been used on social media accounts and webpages with a total reach of 400 million people, as measured by factors such as account followers . . .
The speculation has been truly global, with the biggest reach for the three hashtags on Facebook coming from the “India Today” news magazine page, while one of the biggest reaches on Instagram is from the account of “Diario Libre,” a newspaper in the Dominican Republic, which has 1.8 million followers.”
Last but not least is the level of outlandish theories surrounding the fates of both women. For Christie, the whispers of murder or suicide were at least justifiable; for the Princess of Wales, it was bizarre that such conspiracy theories managed to light up social media as they did — especially since the palace had announced from the beginning that Catherine would out of commission until Easter.
Well — maybe the flood of conspiracy theories online isn’t so bizarre. The Telegraph recently reported that a driver of the worst rumors were agents of China and Russia. As noted in “When Prince Harry Became Lord Har-Har,” those two countries have deemed it a matter of public interest to injure the repulsion of the royal family, and it will likely not be the last time social media is used to create a web of unsavory lies about the House of Windsor.
I did not know about Agatha Christie. Interesting piece.