The Sun was in ‘discussions with the palace all along’ about the farm-store video

On Sunday, March 17, The Sun reported exclusively that the Princess of Wales had been seen out and about at the Windsor Farm Store, shopping with Prince William. The Sun also reported that Kate and William had been out of the house for hours, watching their kids play some sporting event. Initially, there were no photos or videos and people questioned the whole story. It felt like yet another bungled palace scheme, especially because it came one week after Reuters, Getty, AFP and the Associated Press had killed the Kensington Palace-released, manipulated Mother’s Day photo. People were legitimately asking where Kate was and if she was okay, and the palace was like “pinky-swear, we promise she was out and about but there are no photos!”

Then the next day, the Sun and TMZ paid $200K for the video of “Will and Kate” leaving the farm store. The moment the video came out, people online and around the world were like “is that really Kate?” While the quality of the video was not great, it felt like the woman in the photo was taller, with longer legs, and a much-younger face. The woman’s gait was different than Kate’s, especially as the woman seemingly speed-walked out of the shop. People questioned every part of the video – the AP was like “that’s weird” and a BBC sports reporter questioned why everyone was running with “it’s totally Kate.” The whole thing was just odd and it’s still odd, even now that we know that Kate was (at the time) going through chemotherapy and recovering from surgery.

Well, we’ve got an answer to one of those questions – why did the Sun, the Mail and every other British outlet run the video and screencaps as “that’s totally Kate?” The answer is that Kensington Palace was working in tandem with the Sun’s editors to ensure that the video was published. This, according to the Sun’s editor Victoria Newton.

“[The Prince and Princess of Wales] knew that if they went out there… they would be seen”

Sun editor Victoria Newton defends a video of the couple at a Windsor farm shop and says she was “in discussions with the palace” and they had no issues#BBCLauraK https://t.co/YwWnH1Fc5j pic.twitter.com/b9Eb4hL2Ge

— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) March 24, 2024

“Of course I was in discussions with the palace all along with that. And there was no problem with us running those images. It kind of felt like the nation was desperate to see her.” So… Kensington Palace colluded with the Sun on the entire story from start to finish, correct? The Sun was the outlet which got the “Kate went shopping” story exclusively, then magically, the next day, the same outlet procured the video, and all of it was given the greenlight by KP? While I’ve always known that the whole thing was a KP operation, it begs the question… why did Kensington Palace throw their weight around so hard about the photo of Kate in the car with her mother? Why did KP refuse to allow any British outlet to publish those photos, or even embed those tweets in their coverage? Some really crazy sh-t was going on behind the scenes.

Kate Middleton Seen in Public for First Time Since Mystery Hospitalization | Click to read more ???? https://t.co/O7zlxZfiCY

— TMZ (@TMZ) March 4, 2024

#KateMiddleton seemed to be in good spirits while out and about with #PrinceWilliam Saturday. https://t.co/kLUsfvt3b2 (????: TMZ/The Sun) pic.twitter.com/EqbtVojBcw

— TMZ (@TMZ) March 18, 2024

Photos courtesy of Cover Images & Kensington Palace’s video. Covers courtesy of The Sun & the Mail.