Sharon Osbourne condemned conspiracy theories during Princess Kate’s treatment for cancer and denounced criticism of the royal for editing a photo.

The Princess of Wales spent six months out of the public eye from Christmas Day to June 15, during which time she had major abdominal surgery and began chemotherapy for cancer.

However, her break from the limelight sparked a frenzy of posts asking, “Where is Kate Middleton?” The princess experienced a major backlash after she was caught editing a family portrait on Mother’s Day.

Sharon Osbourne took a swipe at Kate’s critics during an episode of her family’s The Osbournes podcast.

“On Mother’s Day—it was Mother’s Day in England—and [Kate] had a picture taken just holding the kids, and she was sat down, and the kids were around her, and she had an arm around here, and an arm around here, and somebody was examining the picture and goes ‘oh it’s ridiculous, she’s photoshopped this picture,'” Sharon said.

“‘Look at her arms, that’s not her hand around there,’ and then around the world, it was ‘Why has this picture been photoshopped?’ It’s like as if she’d photoshopped big t*** on herself or something. It’s her hand. Who cares?”

Kelly Osbourne, Sharon’s daughter, said: “I think that she’s handled every step of this journey so far with such dignity and grace and I think that what was happening to her prior to her coming out was so disgusting.”

In relation to the Mother’s Day picture, she added: “I didn’t see the big deal and why they were like ‘if they’re lying to us about this what else are they lying about?'”

Multiple international picture agencies issued “kill” notices for the image, setting the stage for a dispute with Kensington Palace that appears to have permanently changed the way the Wales family releases images.

Kate and now post their pictures to their social media accounts, bypassing agencies, and letting fans access them directly.

When the picture of the princess alongside , and was released, bearing the hallmarks of multiple edits, social media was rife with speculation that the palace was hiding a secret motivation for Kate’s withdrawal from public life.

Some took the edits as confirmation that all was not as it seemed. Some also commented on the fact that she was not wearing her wedding ring, while their fingers all appeared to be crossed.

However, as the furor around her grew and grew, Kate decided on March 22 to release a video message revealing she had been diagnosed with cancer. That same month, it emerged that staff at The London Clinic, where she had surgery, had been caught attempting to access her medical records.

“Then they were saying that people were trying to break into her medical records in the hospital,” Kelly said on the podcast.

Sharon replied: “That was horrendous.”

Jack Royston is chief royal correspondent for Regalrumination.com, based in London. You can find him on X (formerly ) at and read his stories on Regalrumination.com‘s

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