Charles Barkley has time and again proven he enjoys a bit of royal gossip. But within limits. Now that the Princess of Wales is being dragged through the media after Kensington Palace bungled up that Mother’s Day photograph, Chuck is having none of it. Previously joking about the estrangement between the two princes, now he’d like the media attention around Kate Middleton to subdue already.

“Leave that woman alone, please, you idiots in the press,” Sir Charles – though not really knighted by British royalty – said loud and emphatically on the Steam Room podcast. “Please, leave that poor woman alone. Y’all badgered this woman, she had to put out a fake picture! She had surgery, clearly there’s something wrong, looks like there’s some type of complications.” 

Chuck isn’t denying that the photograph was questionable. But he’s defending why Kensington Palace would do that and he’s blaming all the media attention since her surgery for forcing the Waleses to put out that picture. He expressed his concern for Kate’s health to Ernie but is far more frustrated at the kind of attention surrounding her.

“Man, being in the limelight like that, I would never in my wildest dreams wanna be like that,” he empathized with Kate, who’s been dogged by media ever since she withdrew from the public eye following abdominal surgery in January. He theorized that “she had to release a fake picture,” because the press was pressuring her for her whereabouts.

As for the aftermath of that picture; “Did she have to apologize?” Barkley questioned before repeating Kate needed to be left alone to recuperate. “She’s not hiding out because she’s on spring break.”  

He went on to hope she was alright and wished she got the space to recover.

Sir Charles keeps up with the royals

Barkley is known to be private and lately a social media bloomer since his recent Instagram arrival forced him to take lessons from his TNT colleagues. But he’s not willing to invite extra attention to his private life. He certainly doesn’t want to be in the British Royal Family’s shoes.

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Not long ago, he was questioned about his falling out with Michael Jordan. He left the NBA community amused when he said he and Mike are, “not like Prince Harry and Prince William.” And we all know how that’s going.

Again, he’s shown that he’s keeping up with the latest drama in the British Royals. He even has Ernie agreeing that the Waleses probably felt “compelled” to prove Kate is fine. Both also wished King Charles – the British monarch, not Chuck’s CNN show with Gayle King – the best in his cancer battle.

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