Trust once lost is hard to regain and no one knows it better than the Royal Family as their badly botched handling of Kate Middleton’s absence has left their every word and action open to heavy criticism and finger-pointing. The Princess of Wales’s cancer video is currently under the same microscope and facing the accusation of being AI-generated.
Once the masses got their ire over the U.K. media’s attempts to make everyone feel bad for discussing insane conspiracy theories about Kate (after peddling them in the first place), the Sherlock Holmes hats were back as curious and frankly, hesitating-to-trust-the-palace minds sat down to dissect the video. The verdict? Many are steadily getting more and more certain that Kate’s cancer announcement video which moved many to tears was allegedly made via AI and is not real.
Extremely skeptical after the photoshopped Mother’s Day video, the revelation that Kate even manipulated a picture of the late Queen, and the sketchy picture of her shopping in Windsor with William, some are running the cancer announcement video through different AI detection softwares.
A video from seven years ago where Kate is seen wearing the same light sweater and sporting a similar hairstyle has been found and is being shared as the supposed template for the cancer video.
Everyone is pointing out a different aspect of the video, including the supposed disappearance of the ring in her left hand.
But at least this point has been shot down – while still frames of the video do show that the ring suddenly disappears, a slowed-down version does confirm that it is there and it’s just the blur effect hiding the ring from view when attempts to take pictures of Kate’s moving hand are made.
Of course, explanations like Kate simply sitting in front of a green screen to make the video, wearing something that reminds her of happy memories, etc are being made alongside the general calling out of those still finding it impossible to believe that the palace is done lying.
Also, this time, instead of letting more curious minds join the debate in the absence of updates, Kensington Palace has relayed (to Time via an email) that Prince William and Kate are “enormously touched by the kind messages from people here in the U.K., across the Commonwealth, and around the world in response to Her Royal Highness’ message.”
While the British media is currently sticking to its narrative of shaming the conspiracy theorists out there, it needs to be acknowledged that the said rumors (and the ones that will crop up in the future) found the space to flourish and spread solely because the palace made a big mess of handling Kate’s wish to keep her health updates private.