BBC insider denies Kate Middleton cancer reveal video was edited

US News

By Dana Kennedy

A staffer for BBC Studios, which shot the video of Kate Middleton announcing her cancer diagnosis, denied suggestions the footage was edited after the princess recently came under fire for doctoring a Mother’s Day photo of herself with her children.

In the video posted Friday, the 42-year-old mom of three said she’d been diagnosed with cancer and is undergoing chemotherapy treatment after having “major abdominal surgery.” She did not specify what type of cancer.

“BBC Studios filmed a message from the Princess of Wales at Windsor this week. We would like to wish Her Royal Highness a speedy recovery,” BBC Studios said in a short statement after the footage showing a gaunt Middleton was released.

“In January, I underwent major abdominal surgery in London and at the time, it was thought that my condition was non-cancerous. The surgery was successful,” the future queen said in the video, said to have been filmed Wednesday.

“However, tests after the operation found cancer had been present. My medical team therefore advised that I should undergo a course of preventative chemotherapy and I am now in the early stages of that treatment.”

A source at BBC Studios insisted to The Mirror that Middleton’s video was not edited, nor did the studio have any editorial input into her remarks. The insider added that BBC Studios, which also filmed Queen Elizabeth’s funeral and King Charles’ coronation, had no part in distributing the royal’s message.

The studio’s debunking comments came in the wake of a Mother’s Day photo released by Kensington Palace earlier this month showing Middleton with her three kids, an image that later turned out to have been doctored.

Top news organizations initially published the image but later withdrew it — with the Associated Press saying that closer inspection revealed the source had manipulated the photo in a way that did not meet the news wire’s photo standards. 

The Princess of Wales later tweeted her apologies.

“Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing,” the princess wrote. “I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused.”

Chris Ship, the royal editor at ITV News, believes Middleton chose to reveal her cancer diagnosis via video to make it “personal.”

“It’s a moment she chose to do on video, which is very different from doing it in a written statement. What can we read into that?” ITV News host Charlene White asked Friday.

“If you look back to how the King revealed his cancer diagnosis earlier this year, it was in a statement from Buckingham Palace. Kate has done it, I am told, in a video form because she wanted to do it in the most personal way possible,” Ship replied.

“Yes, of course, it helps to silence all the conspiracy theorists as well, but she wanted to do the video message and it was a very moving message, too. And she wanted to make that very personal statement herself.”