Adapted from “The Michael Knowles Show,”  March 25, 2024.

Over the past few weeks, there has been a major tabloid scandal involving Catherine, Princess of Wales, who has been missing since January. The future queen of England, Prince William’s wife, had abdominal surgery at the beginning of the year, but then, she basically just disappeared.

All kinds of theories circulated, including William fathering children out of wedlock and Catherine having passed away with a body double taking her place. Yet there was no evidence for any of this whatsoever.

But now, the gossip and guessing are over because the Princess of Wales has publicly announced why she has been out of sight with an explanation that poses a real risk, not just to their family, but also to the British monarchy.

In her video announcement, the princess gives thanks for the support she has received as she has been recovering and for the medical team who has taken care of her. At the time she had surgery, it was thought that her condition was non-cancerous. Though the surgery was successful, tests after the operation showed cancer had been present. Her medical team advised her to begin preventative chemotherapy, a treatment she is now undergoing.

Inevitably, there are still going to be all sorts of theories that surface, but this seems to legitimately explain her disappearance. Apparently their children were ending their school term before the Easter recess and they wanted to wait to tell them first — before any media firestorm that the future queen of England has cancer. At the same time, the current king of England, King Charles, has cancer, so this obviously puts a lot of pressure on Prince William.

Some Americans are going to question why everyone is so invested in these people’s lives. They will say, “We haven’t cared about these people since 1776.” But, first of all, I care just because the Princess of Wales seems like a lovely woman. She is a dignified woman. And we should all pray for her and her recovery, as well as for King Charles.

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But why do Americans care? It is obvious that they do. This news has not just been trending in the British tabloids; American tabloids have covered it as well. So, why does monarchy, or aspects of monarchy, endure throughout history?

We kid ourselves in the United States to believe we removed the monarchy. I was at the State of the Union just two weeks ago, and there was much pomp and circumstance. Obviously the American president is not a king, but we have had American presidents who effectively have been kings. Notably, Franklin Roosevelt was the American monarch, reigning for four terms and dying in office. Good luck trying to distinguish him from any supposed autocratic leaders of his age or even from a proper monarch, just on pure aesthetics alone.

Why is that enduring? Because we live in society. That is what politics is. And we need representatives. Even in democracy, we need representatives. That’s why we call our system of government a representative democracy.

But we have one particular representative in the United States, which is the president. People don’t get all that jazzed about their congressmen, nor their senators. But people get really fired up about their presidential candidates and their presidents because it’s just human nature — and as humans, we care about people. We cultivate and form our desires based on the desires of other people. We follow leaders. That’s just how it works.

Now, one of the problems with the monarchy is that there are some dodgy characters in it, like Prince Andrew gallivanting with Jeffrey Epstein. Then there were the scandals in the 90s with Prince Charles and Princess Diana. However, William and Catherine seem to be quite dignified. If the British monarchy is able to survive, it will be because of that.

This is something to look for, even in our own personal lives. Catherine is dignified. People like her. They like her more than they like Meghan Markle because Markle is not dignified at all. In fact, she is extremely undignified. Yet with Catherine, even after people had suggested her husband was cheating on her, alleged she was dead, and created such terrible theories about her, the Princess of Wales gave a dignified message, thanking people for their care and concern. That kind of dignified behavior is attractive, especially in an age that is extremely undignified and downright shameless.

So we pray for her recovery, and perhaps we ought to try to emulate a little bit of that grace and dignity.