British Health Minister Maria Caulfield called the allegations “pretty severe” and said it was “serious stuff to be accessing notes that you don’t have permission to.”
“From a health perspective, it’s not acceptable to be looking at people’s notes, but it has been spotted and action has been taken,” she said in an interview with Sky News.
Asked about the breach report received by the Information Commissioner’s Office, a spokesperson for London’s Metropolitan police said: “We are not aware of any referral to the Metropolitan Police at this time.”
It’s the latest twist in a royal saga that refuses to go away.
The palace announced in January that Kate would be taking more than two months off after undergoing unspecified abdominal surgery.
But she has become the subject of an entire ecosystem of speculation and conspiracy theories filling the void of details that she and William have sought to keep private about the situation.
Little information has been provided about Kate’s surgery or condition, while the now infamously manipulated family photo that was called out by major news agencies sent the royal rumor mill into overdrive.
Some have decried the level of speculation, and even the interest and coverage itself, in this royal soap opera. But the story also speaks to fundamental tensions between the palace, press and public over transparency and accountability.
Britain’s conservative-dominated press has been largely sympathetic to the family. These newspapers have condemned the social media masses speculating about Kate’s health — while simultaneously stoking the story by giving it blanket coverage.
Chief among them is The Sun, a right-wing tabloid and one of the country’s best-selling newspapers, which this week published a video that it said showed Kate and William out shopping. The footage was taken by an engineer named Nelson Silva, who told the paper that his video should end the rumors about Kate’s whereabouts and condition.
“I’m not so much shocked that these comments have continued, I’m just confused how exactly they can continue,” he said of the conspiracy theories, in which some people had suggested that the person in the video was not Kate. “This is a video clearly showing her and William. I saw them with my own eyes. It was a completely relaxed situation.”