Let us not specuKATE!

Dear fellow royal enthusiasts, tweeters and bloggers,

If you’re actually reading this blog it’s highly likely that you have an interest in Kate & William.  And if you are, I’m sure you’ve noticed a drastic decline in the availability of  new information, pictures and quotes from Kate and/or William since they returned to the UK on Monday.  And in lieu of any new stories or information, traditional and non-traditional media have started to do what it always does when there are no new stories… it starts to make them up!  Knowing that fans, much like myself are scanning websites and magazines for headlines, the media feel somewhat forced to provide a story where there are none.  Almost instinctively, on the heels of an incredibly successful royal tour, we’re all clamoring for more and more information about the Duke and Duchess we now so love.  Given that Kate and William are currently on a hiatus from the limelight - what could we possibly be reading about when we jump online or grab a magazine?  What we’re seeing is a ton of speculating – or as I like to call it right now – specuKATEing!  Let’s face it – there are at least 20 stories about Kate to every 1 story about William.

Over the 11 days of the royal tour Kate and William did what the set out to do which was provide all of us a chance to make contact with the royals, get to know them better and more importantly, give them a chance to get to know us.  We got the pictures, headlines and all the fan-fare we craved and now that they’ve returned home longing for their somewhat ‘normal life’ we focus on issues that are none of our business and of which very little fact is known such as Kate’s weight, fertility, relationship with her girlfriends, etc. 

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if given that Kate & William are not taking part in any public events we merely didn’t report on Kate & William until they did?  Sounds quite novel doesn’t it!  Of course – specuKATEing can be fun but I worry there are more potential negative consequences than good ones.  Rumour-fueled, media speculation hasn’t appeared to serve any ‘celebrity’ to date – one need only look to other examples such as Princess Diana to see that the weight of speculation can be a very heavy burden indeed.

So I say to all of us Royal Enthusiasts out there… Let’s not spend the summer specuKATEing… we either know the facts or we don’t… let’s not retweet rubbish… let’s not chime in on things that are none of our business… let’s give Kate & William at the very least a snowball’s chance in hell of making it!  Our thirst for crap will only fill the well!  If we demand integrity-driven content… we may just get it!  For example, did you hear yesterday that Kate is allergic to horses?  Now there’s a headline!

Ever respectfully,

Kelly Rachelle Mathews

AllThingsRegal ~ http://twitter.com/#!/allthingsregal