The King’s cancer diagnosis has played out slightly better media-wise as, like most patients undergoing treatment, has been advised to avoid infection by restricting his public exposure. 

This has, unsurprisingly, given a wide space for speculation but this has been managed to an extent by the fact that the King is carrying on his constitutional duties – those red boxes have continued to arrive. Also, he has been photographed, looking reasonably fit. 

But with the Princess of Wales, brief glimpses in cars have irritated rather than reassured the media, which has expressed its hostility to what is clearly seen as an unfair reality – the lack of fresh good images of one of the ‘stars’ of the Royal Family, generated by the media itself. 

Personally, I suspect that this is more of a manufactured storm in a teacup than a genuine crisis. 

I suspect that the Princess of Wales has reached a stage in her convalescence where she is still strongly advised to do very little, gets tired easily but is well enough to be thoroughly bored by her inactivity. A sensible and responsible woman, she is listening to the advice and letting herself be looked after but is looking to do things she can do within the limits currently placed on her. 

So, I strongly suspect that she occupied herself by trying to ‘improve’ her husband’s efforts and didn’t succeed. Which, for any human being who prides themselves (as she clearly does) on doing a good job, is bound to be mortifying. But I do not believe that the embarrassment is likely to be fatal, and I hope that in time she will be able to laugh over it, with the Prince and public alike.