Kate Middleton, 'her medical records spied'

After all, the Kingdom's tabloid press, as emerged in the course of the legal actions conducted by Prince Harry in the British courts against the major tabloid publishers, had no qualms in the past, resorting to private investigators, telephone tapping and even intrusions into medical records for its hunger for scoops.

Certainly, the case has triggered immediate reactions, also at a political level, while confirming the mounting pressure on the royal family over the health issues of its members: pressure in the face of which Prince William himself has reportedly been 'deeply frustrated' in recent days.

All the more so in the wake of the scandal sparked by the recent publication by Kensington Palace of a photo of Kate that was presented as reassuring, but turned out to be manipulated and withdrawn in general embarrassment.

Prime Minister's spokesman Rishi Sunak intervened on the attempted intrusion into the medical records of the wife of the heir to the throne, emphasising the importance of protecting privacy, especially in the medical field, and the need to 'support the Princess of Wales' during her convalescence.

And even Maria Caulfield, deputy minister of health, recalled that attempting to 'gain unauthorised access' to a patient's data, real or not, represents a 'serious and grave breach' of the rules by doctors, nurses or hospital employees; she also called for a preliminary check by the London police to assess hypothetical criminal profiles behind the incident.

While the independent data protection authority (Ico) launched an administrative investigation as soon as it became aware of the news. Meanwhile, talk continues of the video published yesterday by the Sun in which the princess, still awaiting firm dates on her return to public activity after Easter, was immortalised smiling and in good shape, albeit rather slimmed down, alongside her husband in a shop near their Adelaide Cottage residence in Windsor.

The author of the first ever film of Kate after her surgery in January, 40-year-old Nelson Silva, who was at Windsor Farm Shop shopping, assured in an interview published in the tabloid today that he recognised the Princess of Wales and dismissed as 'delusional' the theories spread - along with many others - on the web that she was a look-alike.

As stated in a commentary by the BBC, this social network-fuelled obsession, to which the media contributes and which fills an information vacuum, eventually risks eroding the trust of the British people.