Actress Shannen Doherty chastised the public over its treatment of Kate Middleton in an emotional message posted to Instagram on Friday.
“Being a public figure does not mean the public owns that person. We ALL have the right to go thru illness or life privately,” the former Charmed actress wrote, in response to news that Middleton had been diagnosed with cancer.
Doherty is currently living with Stage 4 cancer, after she was first diagnosed in 2015, and underwent chemotherapy and brain surgery in Jan. 2023. A year later, the 52 year-old actress said she’d started a “miracle” cancer treatment.
“The onslaught of conspiracy theories, ownership, and plain morbid curiosity forced this person to explain herself before she had come to terms with it and explained to her children,” Doherty wrote. “I pray this is a learning moment for us all to respect, privacy or others, regardless of being in the public eye.”
The actress went on to say that she admired Kate’s strength.
Middleton announced that the reason she had exited the public eye was due to a cancer diagnosis following an abdominal surgery she’d undergone in January.
“My medical team therefore advised that I should undergo a course of preventative chemotherapy and I am now in the early stages of that treatment,” she said in her statement. The announcement was the climax in weeks of rampant online speculation as to Middleton’s whereabouts, maritial status, and health.
Kate mentioned needing to take time to adjust to the news “for the sake of her young family.”
“It has taken us time to explain everything to George, Charlotte and Louis in a way that is appropriate for them, and to reassure them that I am going to be OK,” Kate said.
