Freshman Monely Balouchian picks up her phone and goes to the popular social media app, X, which she uses to get information about news events. She is scrolling until she comes upon a post that seems somewhat disturbing: “Kate Middleton takes leave from social media but speculations about her death arise.” Balouchian, a huge follower of the Royal Family, becomes instantly alarmed.
“I thought she died because of these rumors, they were spreading so much, so I thought they were true,” Balouchian said. “And so then I started talking about it with my friends and family. And I started saying wow, did she actually die?”
Gossip was then put to rest when Princess of Wales Catherine Middleton posted a video, talking about how she had been diagnosed with cancer, had to undergo abdominal surgery, and would be out until Easter.
“The video gave everyone more explanation on what was going on,” Balouchian said. “It would have been easier to just post something, but usually when you put it on text people can view it differently. So on video, she explained her situation, and people could not interpret it differently.”
Rumors began to die down, however many people wondered if she was forced into making the video due to many growing conspiracy theories.
“The video was very brave because she could have just put out a statement, but she felt it was important for people to see her, and I think that is her way of answering all the speculation with everything, “ Ethics teacher Rylan Smith said. “For whatever reason, she felt that she had to come out and address some things.”
According to a news article by Page Six, the rumors about Middleton became too much to bear and she was pressured into making the video. The statement also expressed that the family wanted to keep as much normality for her children. Middleton explained in the video that her condition took time to explain to her children, which is one of the reasons she wanted to keep this more private.
Other celebrities have also suffered from privacy issues including popular music artist Billie Eilish. In Novemeber 2023, Eilish was on the red carpet during a Variety Hitmakers’ interview when she was outed with her sexuality to the public. Eilish responded with an Instagram post confronting Variety Hitmakers and cleared the air about the rumor. People speculated about her sexuality before this interview, but after the incident, Eilish confirmed this with the post. As she was not able to come out on her own time, she became very upset with the interviewer and Variety Hitmakers, for forcing her to expand on her sexuality.
“Stuff that we tend to take for granted, celebrities have to be very thoughtful about,” Smith said. “How they go about it and then sometimes end up sharing things that maybe they wouldn’t have liked to share if they had been an ordinary citizen.”
The isolation from regular life can cause celebrities to struggle with the isolation and can overall damage their mental health. Some people will make up these types of rumors for publicity or to simply make the celebrity look bad. While some talk about celebrities is meant to be harmful, others are simply talking about it due to their curiosity.
“I talk about celebrities when it’s an interesting story because sometimes it is one of those stories where it doesn’t happen every day,” Balouchian said.
Most people realize the effects of these rumors but continue to feed into the conspiracy theories that will continue to spiral unless addressed.
“It’s not okay, but sometimes if you get certain evidence or information, you jump to conclusions without actually thinking of it, and that’s where these rumors would be coming from,” Balouchian said.
A lot of speculation comes from posts or videos that only show one particular piece of a whole scene. When the royal family posted an edited photo of Kate Middleton rumors spread on the reason that Middleton had to be edited in, only further contributing to the rumors about her leave of absence.
Smith agrees that a photo can sometimes not show the entire truth, so even a photo can lead to speculation and rumors.
Many celebrities suffer from a lack of privacy and are not being treated with the same amount of respect that regular citizens have. To veer from this type of gossip being spread, people should wait for the whole story before posting their assumptions.
“The power is in the ordinary citizens and the journalists,” Smith said. “If we want things to change, then we as a society have to decide we’re going to let celebrities be their own people and have their own lives outside of whatever it is that makes them popular or makes them famous.”
