There are 2 men missing from the conversation about Kate Middleton.

For better or for worse, the British royal family has been all anyone can talk about over the past few weeks.

By now, we've all become acutely attuned to the unfolding timeline since February ticked over into March, when the public began whispering about the Princess of Wales' whereabouts and wellbeing.

After a growing campaign that rapidly gained traction across social media platforms, "where's Kate" conspiracy theories grew enough momentum that we began to see the royals responding to the public's prodding.

First, there was the paparazzi photo of Catherine supposedly travelling with her mother, Carol Middleton. Then came the photoshop drama, which only added fuel to the fire. On March 8, Kate and her three children — Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis — sat for a picture to celebrate Mother's Day, snapped by her husband Prince William.

Elsewhere, King Charles has also been absent from the "where's Kate?" narrative.

While it could be argued that he has a fair bit on his plate at the moment with growing concern around the nature of his cancer diagnosis, there have been next to zero mutterings on the subject of Catherine from his camp.

Sure, Charles wasn't personally involved in the picture or the pandemonium that followed. But when you think about how easily the royal family have been able to control the narrative of the British media (well... until now), you have to begin to wonder why the King hasn't offered the Palace's official support to Catherine in any way.

It has long been assumed that King Charles and Prince William have the ability to send messages via 'royal correspondents' and 'insiders' to let their feelings be known to the media (and therefore, the public) without directly saying so. So why isn't he doing it this time?

Perhaps we should be picking up not what is being said about Princess Catherine, but rather, what isn't. While this particular ordeal is niche in nature, it's something that we have seen play out time and time again around the world: Women take the fall while men stay quiet.

Perhaps Prince William and King Charles' respective silence on the matter speaks louder than any other theory doing the rounds.

At this point, we can probably all agree that something seems to be seriously amiss within the royal family. What that is exactly is unknown, for now at least. But until we start hearing messages of support from the two most powerful men in the Windsor cohort, one can only assume that the journey ahead for Catherine will be forged alone.

Feature Image: Getty.