By June Selib
Last week, Kate Middleton, the Princess of Wales, revealed on a pre-recorded video statement that she was diagnosed with cancer. While this news is tragic and has shocked western media, an equally large concern has grown: the surge in unemployment following Middelton’s announcement.
Before the media became aware of her diagnosis, Middelton had completely disappeared from the public eye for almost two months. During this time, reporters, middle-aged moms, diplomats, teenagers, journalists and random TikTok accounts speculated on what could have happened to her, accumulating millions of dollars in the process.
Conspiracy theories flooded social media pages, ranging from Middleton attending a disastrous Glasgow Willy Wonka experience to the royal family hiding Middleton because of rumors that her husband, Prince William, is having an affair.
Others connected the disappearance to the infamous death of Prince Willam’s mother, Princess Diana. In a TikTok edit by @kingCharlesIsBae231, parallels are shown between the two women to the song Cults by Gilded Lily. In the recent TikTok ban bill, Congress cited that in the recent months, average screen time on TikTok has gone up by 2000%, with most of this time being spent on edits, podcast clips and pop culture news accounts focused on the Kate Middelton disappearance. The craze soon spread to Twitter, Instagram reels and even Youtube Shorts, with ‘thirst-trap’ audios being used as background music to videos.
Earlier this month, diplomats and foreign affairs officers paused all international negotiations, instead holding an emergency United Nations meeting to solve the mystery of Middleton’s disappearance.
Since the diagnosis, millions have lost their jobs and are back to having too much free time. Brands such as Bloom Nutrition and Tarte had already planned their next influencer trip to the royal palace but had to cancel, losing thousands of dollars and partnerships, and are now dealing with many angry influencers. Online investigators and influencers have struggled to find another case as interesting and widespread as Middleton’s, and many are having to move back in again with their parents.
Many had dropped out of school and quit their jobs to focus on the case, yet now they find themselves with too much free time and are unable to get these jobs back. The House has considered a bill that will force universities and offices to re-hire anyone who quit because of the Kate Middelton case due to the United States economy taking a significant hit. Even then, it is worrisome how long this bill will take to pass and how much farther the economy will plummet.
President Biden on Monday called this a “nationwide crisis.” With Republicans blaming Biden for this frenzy, Donald Trump supporters are saying Biden was too caught up with this case to take care of the country. Democrats fought back stating that Biden and former president Donald Trump had “shared equal interest” in the subject and had been, “sending TikTok edits back and forth to each other.” Trump declined to comment.
The Beacon Beat 