The one detail during Kate Middleton’hospital visit everyone missed, and we’re lost for words Times have got stranger this month, with not only King Charles but Kate the Princess of Wales currently laid up in the same London hospital, with the Crown Inc. suffering its worst health crisis since that one time all the lobster thermidor turned out to be off. The bizarre doesn’t stop there: Why haven’t Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis been to see their mother? It is now 12 days since the princess and mother of three was admitted to the London Clinic for abdominal surgery, thus 12 days at least since her three young children have seen her. The day after the Kate news was announced, Prince William, having put his out of office on to do the full-time dad bit, was seen leaving the Clinic via the back in his $268,000 electric Audi. Both the Sun and the Daily Mail have subsequently reported that the prince has been in to see his wife on a daily basis since then, which is sweet and all but just to really play broken record, what about their kidlets? And what about, for matter, Kate’s devoted parents Carole and Michale Middleton and her siblings Pippa Matthews and James Middleton, with whom she is very close?

(James, who has written about suffering from severe depression, has revealed that Kate “came to some of my therapy sessions” and that she was “by my side during the hardest of times as well.”) Kate Middleton It is not a matter of William wanting to protect his kids from having to brave the wall of invasive, intimidating long lenses of the world’s press either. The Daily Mail’s royal editor Rebecca English has revealed that “the media have agreed not to have photographers [outside the hospital], not to have camera crews, not to have journalists, to allow [Kate] to recuperate from her operation in privacy and also to respect the privacy of the other patients.” Therefore, William or the Middletons could easily ferry George, Charlotte and Louis in and out of the hospital to see their mum unobserved and in private. One possible explanation for the young Waleses staying away came via the Sun, which reported that “William and Kate want her absence to feel as normal as possible for the youngsters”. And Monday to Friday, that’s entirely buyable and reasonable. But – and here we have a double, treble underlined ‘but’ in bold – what about the weekend just past? Still, they did not go, instead doing some (I’m assuming) bucolic gambolling about their “doting” Middleton grandparents’ $7 million place in Bucklebury, according to the Sun. Which is sweet and all and Carole and Michael can ‘dote’ all they want, proffering forth as many sticky buns, sweet treats and gloriously gloopy ice creams as they can find, but is that better than getting a hug from their mother? The Waleses home Adelaide Cottage is only about a 45-minute drive from Kate’s hospital, so again, that’s hardly a logistic concern that might be preventing a family reunion. What makes all of this even more bizarre is if you consider the bigger picture. A royal commentator can barely move normally without tripping over some story strenuously flogging the line that the Waleses are devoted parents entirely committed to being as present as possible in their childrens’ lives.