Modernising the monarchy

  These days, you'd be hard-pressed to find a Millennial who isn't on social media. But while most of us use Instagram, TikTok and the like to broadcast everything from our Saturday nights out to our holidays, the Prince and Princess of Wales tended to strike a different note. Intimate revelations, personal essays and dressed-down shots of family life were never quite their style – until now.
  The couple have recently surprised experts (and their fans) by publishing far more revealing content on their social media pages. […]
  The late Queen's mantra may have been to “never complain, never explain”, but the heir to the throne – and his wife – appear ever keener to make their personal voices heard.
  This last year has seen the couple face a number of challenges, not least the Princess' cancer diagnosis. They started 2024 in much the same vein as usual, posting relatively anodyne content – but all that changed when Kate withdrew from the public eye early in the year for planned abdominal surgery. Despite assurances from the Palace that she was “doing well”, the public was keen to see her back in action and, in March, she duly posted a new photograph of herself and her children, to celebrate Mother's Day. No one could have foreseen the backlash. Soon, the image was withdrawn from major picture agencies after some eagle-eyed viewers noticed a number of visual errors, and the photograph was deemed to have been digitally manipulated. The Princess was forced to apologise. […] Illness does not discriminate, and the Princess' struggles will have been relatable to many. […] In September, she chose to make her most personal announcement yet: a video, shared on social media, in which she explained that she was cancer free.
  This was no straightforward statement, however. The highly intimate footage showed Kate and William in their private roles as Mum and Dad, relaxing on the beaches of Norfolk with their arms around one another, laughing as they lay in the sand. They could be seen strolling through the woods with their children, George, Charlotte and Louis […]. Here they were, like any other married couple, in recovery after a brutal diagnosis.