The video footage showing Princess Kate strolling and grinning in Windsor last weekend with her husband, Prince William, seems to have failed to allay public concern. Reports emerged on Tuesday that an employee from the hospital where the Princess of Wales had been admitted for an undisclosed abdominal operation had attempted to infiltrate the patient database to gain access to the princess' medical record.
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"This is a major security breach and incredibly damaging for the hospital, given its unblemished reputation for treating members of the Royal Family," a hospital insider told The Mirror. "Senior hospital bosses contacted Kensington Palace immediately after the incident was brought to their attention and assured the palace there would be a full investigation.
Another informant said the whole medical staff was "left utterly shocked and distraught over the allegations and were very hurt that a trusted colleague could have allegedly been responsible for such a breach of trust and ethics."
While The London Clinic, located in Marylebone in central London, declined to specifically address the alleged attempt to purloin Princess Kate's medical file, they responded to the incident. "We are of the belief that every single one of our patients, irrespective of their social standing, is entitled to complete privacy and absolute confidentiality pertaining to their health information," according to a clinic statement.
The unauthorized attempt to access the medical records of the Princess of Wales occurred two months after her surgery. The uncertainty surrounding the high-profile royal's health status continues to unnerve the British populace, and it appears that the video featuring her has done more to fuel than quell concerns.
In recent days, social media has been awash with conjecture and assertions that the person in the video is not actually Kate. Given the palace's ongoing discretion about her health, it's hardly shocking that an average citizen might resort to extreme measures, as misguided as they may be, to uncover the truth about the princess' condition.
The swirling "Katespiracies" have ranged from suggestions that she was recuperating from a 'Brazilian butt lift' to being in a coma, a conjecture ignited by a Spanish reporter. More alarming hypotheses proposed that she had died and was replaced by a lookalike, or that her marriage to the Prince of Wales was on the rocks.