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Anton Savage: Kate Middleton has been badly let down by her communications team

The toxic deluge of gossip that was allowed to develop around an ill woman need never have developed

Media are not generally forgiving. Media are not generally empathetic. But media are guided by their audiences, and hounding a sick woman does not go down well

If you’re a public figure undergoing intensive, intrusive and exhausting medical treatment, it is entirely reasonable for you to expect privacy. And it is entirely reasonable to expect that your advisors should be able to facilitate that privacy.

In Kate Middleton’s case, both those expectations came to naught. For weeks, her ‘people’ allowed a caustic gossip-circle to flourish. Worse, they poured fuel into it. The photoshopped pictures, the weird statements, the inexplicable quasi-public appearances caught ...