Here are some things that bother me about the garden video, along with a few benefit of the doubt remarks:
1. The hair looks totally fake (but consistent with the common need to wear a wig at such a time).
2. The bench looks like a plastic reproduction of the classic teak original. Maybe that's what they have in their garden. But, assuming they have a full time staff of gardeners and caretakers at hand, I'd think that long term maintenance of outdoor wood furniture would not be a concern. Charles + Recycling vs Charles + Nature knows the way! Your guess is as good as mine.
3. Striped, boxy sweater would add some weight to her frame visually, so a reasonable choice. But something seems off to me about her choice of ill-fitting, faded jeans for such a somber occasion/mission. To be fair, my feelings are not facts.
4. Her Left eyebrow seems unnaturally heavy, elevated and immobile. Unusual to see such in a state of some emotional turmoil, even for one so poised. Possible that this is just a suboptimal placement of Botox on that side, plus makeup to darken suddenly sparse brows.
5. Her legs are crossed at the knee. I have NEVER seen an image of a royal lady in such a posture. OTOH, I have heard many times that once a serious malignancy has been diagnosed in someone, they often no longer give a flip about trifles of convention.
I take back what I said about NEVER. It is said to be such a violation of their rules of decorum that when MM crossed her legs at the knee in public, it made international headlines. Or maybe it was just a slow week for news. In this short video we can also see that Kate has been similarly guilty:
6. I would have thought that for such a serious press release, she would be accompanied by others, such as those closely related or primarily concerned for her and her outcome, at least to give the appearance of support (to the emotions and the story). A better (more typical) play of something like this would be to have her husband alongside, then perhaps an immediate family member (like mom) and an involved health provider available for later discussion, with vague and scripted Q&A for a few carefully selected press insiders.
7. I have seen some videos which detail marginal glitches in the scene, such as of hair and eye movement anomalies. It's entirely possible that such content is troll-created, as CGI can be a sharp knife that cuts both ways.
8. The body frame and proportions appear consistent with KM to my eye. I can't speak to her hand and body mannerisms here, beyond saying that she looks unusually stiff, except for the unusually tight yet expressive hand movements. I'd need to examine old footage to see what might be a baseline for her mannerisms. I'm not going to speculate here about my gut feeling on the meaning of all this, but I do have a strong one.
9. She looks pale and like she's lost a lot of weight. I would have expected her appearance to be health-enhanced with makeup and perhaps more flattering (even if padded) attire, even if done digitally. If this is the best they can do, she must be ill indeed. That comment assumes that all the stuff we see is manipulated, which may not be the case.
Information I'm interested in getting:
A: Can an ornithologist with expertise in birdsong please identify the species singing in the soundtrack here? Then, are these species common in this area and active at this time? Are their songs consistent with the time of day and year?
B: Can a horticulturist with connections get us an accurate map of recent plantings in that particular garden? Are the blossoms and foliage on display consistent with that particular week at that particular locale?
C: Can an expert in photographic lighting analyze the scene for us? To me, it looks like morning light, but somewhat warmer and less soft, with a lot of fill lighting.
When the story came out, I was trying to think of what kind of surgery might entail such a long hospitalization. Transplant surgery? Whipple procedure? Serious intra- or post-op complication like an uncontrolled bleed, aspiration pneumonia, infection, gut ischemia? There are many possibilities for a devastatingly bad outcome.
