RICHARD EDEN: What insiders inform me about ‘manipulative’ Kate movie

Everyone close to the Royal Family is delighted that the Princess of Wales has completed her chemotherapy treatment and hopeful that she remains in remission from an unnamed form of cancer.

But the super-slick video that Kensington Palace released on Monday to broadcast the welcome update on her health has divided opinion among courtiers – and provoked scathing backlash from some friends of King Charles and Queen Camilla.

Their Majesties haven’t yet commented on the extraordinary three-minute film – made by Will Warr, who earns most of his money from shooting advertising campaigns for companies including supermarket giant Tesco and delivery service Uber Eats. It showed Prince William and Catherine frolicking on the beach and in woods in Norfolk with their children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis.

But the highly-stylised video certainly laid bare how radically different Prince William and Catherine’s approach to communications has become from the more traditional methods favoured by the King and Queen, and Queen Elizabeth before them.

Notably, while Catherine’s parents, Michael and Carole Middleton, are shown playing cards with their grandchildren at what appears to be Anmer Hall, the Prince and Princess’s home on the King’s Sandringham estate, King Charles and Queen Camilla are nowhere to be seen in the video.

The video showed William and Catherine frolicking on the beach and in woods in Norfolk

Some of the monarch’s friends are critical. One told me: ‘There’s no coincidence that the Middletons appear in it and not the King and Queen. I can assure you that Charles and Camilla will not be filmed kissing each other on a beach [as William and Catherine were] until hell freezes over. It’s distinctly un-regal.’

I spoke to another insider who was even more scathing.

‘All that lying round, hugging and kissing – they’re not soppy teenagers,’ they said. ‘It felt manipulative. It’s the sort of thing that Meghan would make.

‘All the time, effort and expense put into making the video could have been much better spent elsewhere. Why not visit other women being treated for cancer? That’s what Diana would have done.’

While the film delighted and shocked viewers in equal measure, it’s not the first time that Kensington Palace’s media team have released this sort of glossy extravaganza on social media. In May last year, the Waleses posted a five-minute film about the Coronation that included behind-the-scenes footage of William and Catherine as they prepared for the King’s big day and again their children featured extensively.

‘All that lying round, hugging and kissing – they’re not soppy teenagers,’ an insider said. ‘It felt manipulative. It’s the sort of thing that Meghan would make’

And last December, the couple’s team posted a similarly airbrushed review of the year. At the time, I voiced my concerns about the strategy, which is being masterminded by Lee Thompson, who was appointed as their PR chief in 2022.

He is said to have been tasked with boosting the couple’s profile on social media, where they have 16.8million followers on Instagram.

In his previous job at top US TV network CNBC, Thompson is said to have helped increase its YouTube audience by a staggering 600 per cent.

His appointment came after the couple faced criticism – unfair, in my view – for what was described as a ‘tone deaf’ tour of the West Indies in March 2022.

Speaking on the Mail’s hit royal talk show Palace Confidential last December, I remarked: ‘Kensington Palace going down this route of the Hollywood-style video does make me quite uneasy. William and Catherine are vulnerable to PR people who want them to be these slick celebrities. That’s not what the Royal Family is. It’s important to make that distinction.’

I can assure you that Charles and Camilla will not be filmed kissing each other on a beach, one friend said

Even though I think the latest video is very sweet, I stand by those comments now. William and Catherine don’t need to be ‘Instagram royals’, hungry for ‘likes’ and ‘engagement’ online.

They should follow the example of Queen Elizabeth. The late Queen was always keen to keep up to date with the latest technology but, at the same time, maintain the dignity of the Monarchy.

I’m sure that she would have done as Catherine did with her statement in March, following her cancer diagnosis, and perhaps release a simple video updating the nation on her health – but no more than that.

A Buckingham Palace spokesman declines to comment. After the release of Catherine’s video, a spokesman said: ‘Their Majesties consider the details in [the] announcement to be wonderful news, and will continue to offer all love, thoughts and support to the Princess on her continued path to full recovery.’

A Kensington Palace spokesman declined to comment on why the Middletons featured in the video but not Their Majesties.

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