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Stephen Colbert Regrets Joking About Kate Middleton's Disappearance Before Her Cancer Announcement

By Emily Richardson | Celebrity | March 26, 2024 |

By Emily Richardson | Celebrity | March 26, 2024 |


colbert kate.png

On Friday, Kate Middleton announced she had cancer and was in the early stages of treatment. Immediately, a bunch of social media users got on their high horses and admonished everyone who’d questioned Kate’s whereabouts, investigated that insane Mother’s Day photo, and shared conspiracy theories. “Everyone” includes Stephen Colbert.

Even before the cancer announcement, the Late Show host was criticized for making fun of the Prince William-Rose Hanbury affair rumors. Here’s Stephen’s original joke from two weeks ago:

“The Kingdom has been all aflutter about the seeming disappearance of Kate Middleton. Well now, internet sleuths are guessing that Kate’s absence may be related to her husband, and the future King of England, William, having an affair…

According to tabloids, when Kate supposedly confronted him about it, he laughed it off, saying there was nothing to it. Always a good response when your wife accuses you of cheating.”

After the cancer diagnosis news, people called for Stephen to apologize. Last night, he addressed the controversy:

“We do a lot of shows. I tell a lot of jokes. I tell jokes about a lot of different things, mostly about what everybody is talking about,” Colbert said. “For the last six weeks to two months, everybody has been talking about the mystery of Kate Middleton’s disappearance from public life. Two weeks ago, we did some jokes about that mystery.”

“When I made those jokes, that upset some people…even before her diagnosis was revealed. I can understand that a lot of my jokes have upset people in the past and some of my jokes will upset people in the future, but there’s a standard that I try to hold myself to, and that is I do not make light of somebody else’s tragedy.”

Stephen said he didn’t know if Kate’s prognosis was “a tragic one,” but “far too many of us know that any cancer diagnosis of any kind is harrowing for the patient and for their family.” He added that he and The Late Show staff would like to extend their “well-wishes and heartfelt hope” that Kate’s recovery is “swift and thorough.”

Well, I think that was nice of Stephen. But it wasn’t enough for some angry Twitterers. They wrote stuff like, “no actual apology from Stephen Colbert to Kate Middleton!” and “Could Stephen Colbert be anymore of a jerk??? This is misleading rambling, NOT an apology of any kind.”

Here’s Stephen’s statement:

Stephen isn’t the only one who felt bad about making fun of Kate’s disappearance. Last week, the ladies of The View broke down all the Kate conspiracy theories. Yesterday, Alyssa Farah Griffin said she felt “awful over it.” Ana Navarro called it a “teachable moment” and admitted she should’ve listened to Whoopi Goldberg, who refused to participate in the original discussion and told her co-hosts to mind their business.

On Friday, Blake Lively took to her Instagram Stories to apologize for making a post skewering Kate’s Mother’s Day Photoshop fail. Blake deleted her joke and wrote that she was “mortified.”

I’m on the fence about this one. It’s horrible that Kate had to deal with a cancer diagnosis while the entire world obsessed over her whereabouts and personal life. And some of those memes… woof! So cruel and sexist!

And yet, Kate’s disappearance was news. I don’t even care about the Royals, but after that bizarre Photoshop cover-up, my curiosity got the better of me. I actually zoomed in to get a closer look at the zipper that led to nowhere. Then, Kensington Palace made things way worse when they made “amateur photographer” Kate take the fall. Also, let’s not forget about the many ways the Palace’s PR machine failed Meghan Markle and supported that perv Prince Andrew. We plebs have every right not to take what they say at face value.

So, yeah. The “Where’s Kate?” craze went way too far. But, on many levels, our curiosity was understandable. So I get why Stephen Colbert feels bad. And I also get why he didn’t go so far as to formally apologize. Shit: sometimes it’s complicated.