Why Kate Middleton doesn’t quite have the same right to privacy as the rest of us

We should all calm down and ignore that dodgy picture, says Alan Rusbridger – it’s none of our business, right? But if you are a true believer in monarchy, you have to accept it’s a keen matter of public interest…

Maybe openness, candour and monarchy don’t go together (Prince of Wales )

Is this 1936 all over again? Is there a secret royal scandal brewing, about which we, as loyal subjects, will be kept in the dark until a foreign newspaper or obscure bishop blurts it all out?

If you believe that, then happy hunting. Five minutes on Google or Twitter/X will provide you with enough circumstantial “evidence” to keep you absorbed for days. You, too, can become an expert in lesser-known abdominal medical conditions, the esoteric byways of the Norfolk aristocracy, and the intricacies of what can be amateurishly achieved with Photoshop.

Or perhaps 1995 is a more useful reference point? A vulnerable young woman has married into the royal family and is struggling to survive in a constant, 24/7, unforgiving glare while attempting to create something that passes for a normal life for her children in a weirdly dysfunctional family.