Some members of the royal family, especially the princes and princesses of the younger generation, can easily be placed in that role of victim. They are rich, famous and photogenic, and their role in public life makes them beloved by many.
Catherine in particular was a ready-made focus for a conspiracy story, not only because she is glamorous and widely loved in Britain (helped by favorable tabloid press coverage), but also because she has been more private about her life than many . other royals. “Kate’s signature is her calm, her discretion,” Arianne Chernock, a historian at Boston University who studies the British monarchy, told me. “Kate has been a much more private person” than Princess Diana, she said.
The recent conspiracy theories have been prepackaged with villains: in the speculative corners of the internet, William has been cast in the villainous role that Charles once fulfilled in reporting on Diana, for example.
And as an institution, the royal family is by its very nature particularly vulnerable to criticism and even ridicule: after all, it is a centuries-old constitutional relic, built on strange rituals and funded by British taxpayers, that is seen by many as anachronistic in a modern parliamentary democracy. At its heart is a paradox: it is a family of people held together by relationships and love, but it is also “the firm,” as Prince Philip called it, an institution that ruthlessly pursues its own interests, even at the expense of one’s own interests. the royal family itself.
Importantly, there was an existing online subculture that speculated about the royal family’s perceived institutional corruption and mistreatment of its members: supporters of Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, dubbed the ‘Sussex Squad’, had already exposed the royal reporting long combed for evidence of misconduct. That community became a source of some conspiracy stories amplified by social media algorithms and even a Russia-linked disinformation operation. And the extent of the online speculation subsequently became a subject of mainstream media attention, further fueling the fire, a feedback loop that Are says is common.