Kate Middleton's cancer recovery video is 'a reboot to end all reboots': Source

When the positive news broke on Monday that Kate Middleton had completed chemotherapy and was cancer-free, questions about her ongoing recovery were replaced by one big question about the video she used to announce the news: “What the hell was that?”

Of course, there was no precedent for this, as in earlier times the only news about the health of the royals was announced either on an easel in the courtyard of Buckingham Palace (“… gave birth to a boy…”) or by the BBC's rather terse announcement: “The King is dead, God save the King.”

So it's fair to say that there has never been a more massive and abrupt shift in the tone of royal messaging than that signaled by Kate's astonishingly intimate Instagram video about her cancer recovery, directed by Will Warr.

“I'm now focused on doing everything I can to stay cancer free,” Kate said. “My road to healing and full recovery is a long one and I must continue to take each day as it comes.”

The words were powerful enough; but they were accompanied by artistic, evocative images of the very private family life – with Kate, her husband Prince William and their children playing, hugging and hanging out in the countryside and on the beach, and with Kate and William themselves showing more affection for each other than the public has ever seen before.

If the medium is indeed the message, then the message was clear: Forget everything you think you know about the monarchy, because this is what the royal family will look like from now on.

The reign of King William and Queen Kate, we were told on Monday, will be glossy, professional and primarily digital, with a heavy focus on artfully designed cornfields, butterflies, positivity, flattering light, sunsets, picnics in the woods, playing cards and smooching with Prince William on the beach.

A friend of William and Kate told The Daily Beast: “This is the reboot to end all reboots. This is how Kate and William want to continue. Family comes first and fuck the haters, fuck the press, fuck Harry and Meghan.”

“It helps that they're actually like that. If you go to a kid's birthday party at their house, they're the ones organizing games for all the kids, while the rest of us like to get an entertainer and drink wine in the kitchen.”

The great lesson Kate learned from the late Queen Elizabeth II – and which she applies far more zealously than any of her children or grandchildren ever did – is the importance of mysticism.

Kate has never given a face-to-face interview. We don't know her favorite food or her favorite colors. Like the Queen, she has protected her privacy by simply never talking about herself, her feelings, her opinions or her emotions.

In the deeply personal video released on Monday, Kate broke the habit of her life and shared it with us. She told us for the first time about the deepest things in her life – her hopes and fears for herself and her family.

This video was a declaration of war on the stiff upper lip, a forceful refutation of all those who accuse it of being some kind of automaton, a blank screen or, in the sharp words of the late Hilary Mantel, “a mannequin with certain rags hanging from it”.

The rejection of the royal's strict rules also meant there was no room in the video for a hug from King Charles or Queen Camilla, despite the royal's office having tirelessly reported over the past nine months how close he and Kate have become during their shared battle with cancer.

Instead, we were treated to family time at the Middleton home, where regular Wales hung out with Kate's parents Michael and Carole.

Among the billions of people who watched this potentially two-minute commercial for a dating site, there can be little doubt that among them was a certain resident of Montecito, California.

And Meghan Markle could be forgiven for wondering what the world (and especially the British media) would have said if she and Harry had released such a sweet video vignette.

And she was probably wondering how the hell that uptight Limey, who couldn't even lend her a drop of lip gloss a few years ago without rolling his eyes, managed to steal her clothes like that.