On March 22, British time, Princess Kate, who had disappeared for nearly 90 days, finally appeared and announced that she was suffering from cancer in the form of a video appearance.
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Netizens are sharp-eyed: Why don't the flowers and plants in the background move?
In the past month, the topic of "where has Kate gone" has continued to be searched on major online platforms around the world, and the royal family's flawed response has led to endless popular conspiracy theories.
Princess Kate's response video was released by British national television and reported by official media in various countries, which was thought to dispel public suspicion, but unexpectedly caused controversy again.
Before that, let's first sort out the various "twists and turns" of the British royal family.
1. Confusing abdominal surgery
The whole affair began with a statement issued by Kensington Palace on January 17. Kensington Palace is the official residence of Princess Kate and Prince William, as well as the daily office location.
The statement said it announced that Princess Kate was admitted to the hospital on January 16 and underwent abdominal surgery on the 17th.
The abdominal surgery was booked and successful, with Kate expected to be discharged within two weeks. According to doctors' advice, she is unlikely to travel before Easter (31 March) on official business.
On the evening of January 17, King Charles announced that he would undergo surgery to correct an enlarged prostate within a week, and his hospital, like Kate, was the "London Clinic", a private hospital known for treating members of the royal family, dignitaries and celebrities.
As soon as the statement came out, the focus of public discussion was on Kate's condition.
First of all, King Charles can even make public such a slightly embarrassing disease as an enlarged prostate, why should he deliberately hide Kate's disease and only vaguely say that it is "abdominal surgery".
Moreover, Kate's announcement last year that she would visit Italy for the first time in the spring will undoubtedly be a political event of great significance.
The statement hinted at the possible cancellation of the visit. It can be seen that Kate's condition is sudden, otherwise she would have adjusted the appointment for surgery to visit Italy as scheduled.
Therefore, some people think that Kate's illness should not be simple, and the "London Clinic" is one of the cancer treatment centers in the UK, and some people speculate that Kate has cancer.
On January 29, the royal family said that Kate had been discharged from the hospital on the same day, but the media squatted at the door of the "London Clinic" day and night and did not take any relevant photos.
You know, Kate used to be the kind of woman who could hold her child and greet the media warmly within 24 hours after pregnancy and childbirth.
In contrast, Charles was also discharged from the hospital on the same day, and greeted reporters cordially accompanied by Camilla, and his whole face was radiant.
Since February 7, Prince William has officially resumed official duties and attended various royal events. On February 27, William abruptly withdrew from a British royal event for personal reasons, which was speculated to be related to Kate's deteriorating condition.
On February 28, "Where is Princess Kate" topped British social media, and public opinion about Kate's cancer and other serious illnesses began to ferment. On the same day, Kensington Palace responded again, saying that Kate had been discharged home and was "doing well" in the recovery process.
This is the ambiguity of the royal family's speech, which does not respond positively to whether Kate has cancer, but only mentions her recovery from the side, leaving room for future announcements on whether she has cancer.
Fake pictures, fake videos
On March 4, photos of Kate and her mother travelled out. In the photo, Kate is wearing sunglasses and sitting in the passenger seat of a vehicle driven by her mother, which is Kate's first public appearance since abdominal surgery.
It's just that this did not dispel the doubts of netizens, because many people suspected that this was the stand-in that the royal family was looking for for Kate - Kate's sister Pippa.
There are two reasons for this, one is that the face of the person in the photo looks a little puffy compared to Kate's last public appearance, and the other is that the person bears a strong resemblance to Pipa wearing sunglasses.
Some people also argued for the royal family, this photo was taken secretly by reporters, not released by the royal family, and besides, Pippa and his mother's car are reasonable, and they can't say that the royal family is looking for a stand-in to pretend to be Kate.
The question is, Kate's mother, who is in charge of driving, is deliberately playing Kate by being exposed to the sun and not wearing sunglasses, but Pippa is sitting in the shade and wearing sunglasses?
As a result, public opinion continues to ferment.
On March 5, the British Ministry of Defense posted that Kate would attend a military parade on June 8, but just a few hours later, the article was taken down from its official website.
On Mother's Day on March 10, Kate posted a tweet through her official account, Kensington Palace. The tweet reads a photo of her and her three children, with the caption: Thank you for your best wishes and attention, Happy Mother's Day, and note that this photo was taken by William this week.
It was this incident that pushed the public's discussion of Kate's whereabouts to a climax, and netizens around the world showed their magic powers, finding as many as 16 p-pictures or AI-generated traces from this photo.
Authoritative media such as the Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, and Reuters have deleted this photo one after another under the pressure of public opinion. Seeing that it was about to be unbearable, Kensington Palace issued an apology statement in the name of Kate, admitting the P picture, but did not give the original picture at the request of netizens.
Therefore, many netizens suspect that this is not a p-picture at all, but a fake photo generated entirely by AI.
Coincidentally, where there are fake photos, there are fake videos.
On March 18, the British media "The Sun" exposed a video of Princess Kate's appearance, and said that this was Princess Kate's first appearance after surgery.
In the picture, Princess Kate is carrying a shopping bag with a light gait, talking and laughing with Prince William wearing a cap.
The video sparked controversy: another Kate stand-in?
First, Kate had just undergone abdominal surgery, but she was walking like a fly with a heavy load;
second, Kate's body is light and does not fit the state of a 42-year-old middle-aged person;
Third, the height comparison between Kate and William in the video is inconsistent with that in previous videos;
Fourth, the video quality is too blurry, which is not at the level of modern equipment at all, and is suspected of deliberate camouflage.
One picture and one video, fully detonated the global media, what is the royal family's series of cover-up behaviors? Everyone is speculating, what happened to Kate?
Conspiracy theories are endless. One of the most worrying is the injury and even death of Kate and Princess Charlotte. One of the sources of such speculation was William's rumored lover, Ross Hanbury.
Gossip lovers and conspiracy theories
Since Kate's disappearance, the British media began to introduce a man - 40-year-old Rose Hanbury.
The Ross family was illustrious, and her grandmother was also the bridesmaid of the late Queen Elizabeth II. Because of the family relationship, she and William have also known each other since childhood, and they can be regarded as childhood sweethearts.
In 2009, Rose married Marquis David Chormonddeli and have three children to this day. The Marquis David Cholmondelli was also closely associated with the royal family and had more money, but was 23 years older than Ross.
When Kate and William got married, Rose attended the wedding with her husband, and the couple have been friendly ever since.
When King Charles was crowned last year, Rose's son stood beside Prince George, and Rose himself has been active in royal activities.
At the same time, the scandal between Rose and William also began to circulate.
As early as 2019, the media broke the news that William cheated on Rose, and Kate was pregnant with her third child at this time.
Later, Kate was seen shaking William's face with a cold expression. It is reminiscent of the cliché plot of Kate questioning William for a report, and William admitting to cheating.
William is also suspected of being photographed spending Valentine's Day with Rose, giving him a valuable pearl necklace.
On this basis, the vast number of melon-eating people have constructed two versions of the story of dog blood.
Version 1: Rose is pregnant with William's child, Kate asks for an abortion, and a quarrel breaks out with William, the quarrel intensifies, William rushes to Kate with a knife in a rage, Kate is seriously injured in the abdomen and admitted to the hospital, and the rescue is ineffective and she dies.
Version 2: When William rushed to Kate, Princess Charlotte stood in front of Kate in order to protect her mother, and unfortunately was stabbed to death, Kate was placed under house arrest by the royal family, and her disappearance, including the flawed operation of the royal family, was deliberately done by the royal family to hide the truth.
Both speculations are very absurd, but netizens are not all unfounded.
In 2024, a Spanish reporter broke the news on the show that Kate was not hospitalized on the 16th as officially announced, but had been hospitalized in an accident late at night on December 28 last year, and the scene of a police car opening the way for an ambulance was filmed on the same day.
This is the basis for the first speculation.
In addition, on February 5, netizens photographed a grand funeral on the streets of London, with a dark horse driving a child's bush, and most buildings in the UK were lowered to half-mast that day.
According to British tradition, the flag is flown at half-mast when a member of the royal family dies. Previously, William's co-pilot had been photographed with white flowers. This is the basis for the second speculation.
To get back to the point, these speculations and so-called evidence are all hearsay and gossip, which cannot be true, and the inferences of netizens based on this are just idle talk to kill time.
In fact, if you want to calm public opinion, the best way to prove yourself is for Kate to come out and take two steps, but the royal family has used various means either explicitly or covertly, but has avoided the simplest one.
On March 22, local time in the UK, Kate herself chose a compromise to respond positively. Instead of appearing in public, the BBC recorded and released a video of her appearance, explaining to the public what had happened to her during this time.
Kate's new video sparked controversy again
In the video, Kate confesses that she had a hard time.
At first, the abdominal surgery was successful, but later some complications appeared, and the underlying cause was found to be cancer.
She said that she was very devastated and did not show up because she had to undergo chemotherapy and put all her energy into recovering as soon as possible, and the reason she hid it from the public was that she was not ready to let her three children know, and finally she encouraged those who were suffering from cancer, "You are not alone".
In the video, Kate's voice choked up at one point, but it can be seen that she tried to restrain her emotions and insisted on completing the video recording.
After the BBC released the video, state media from various countries followed up with reports.
At first, the public generally felt sorry for Kate and did not doubt the authenticity of the video. However, due to the lessons of the past such as fake pictures, the voices of doubt still appeared on the Internet.
They suspect that this video is another AI work, mainly for the following reasons.
First, the cherry blossom background in the video is untouched and unreal, and a reasonable explanation is that the video was recorded indoors, and the background is naturally a curtain.
But there was news that the BBC had recorded the video outdoors. The paradox is: why use a screen when you choose to be outdoors?
Second: When Kate's elbow moves in the video, the edge of the chair bar next to her arm is blurred, and there are some fluctuations when zoomed in. If it is a beauty filter, the overall picture will fluctuate, and now such partial fluctuations are usually caused by the imperfection of the algorithm during AI synthesis.
Third: Kate wore similar clothes in the video at an event 7 years ago, which is suspected to be the AI material in this video, and in another comparison picture, Kate wears the same dress but the width of her shoulders is inconsistent.
Fourth: The audio frequency in the video is questioned. Some foreign media analyzed that the feature film showed obvious audio frequency changes at about 1:43, and the sound effect was suspected to be synthesized after 1:43.
In addition, a senior audio engineer proposed that Kate did not have professional radio equipment on her chest in the video, but the sound was too clear, so the audio should be post-production.
In addition, Windsor Castle, where the recording was made, is close to the airport, and planes pass by at low altitude every 30 seconds, and the noise is obvious, which does not match the ambient sound of Kate's video.
In short, there are too many doubts in this video, and some people even think that this video is paving the way for the rationalization of Kate's death in the future.
In addition to the suspicion of the video itself, the key factor that led to doubts about the video is that the credibility of the royal family has fallen to the bottom.
In addition to the above-mentioned behavior of suspected "deception" of the people, there are also the suspicious death of Diana, various scandals of living royal family members such as King Charles, Prince Harry, and so on.
So do you believe this video of Princess Kate? What do you think? Feel free to leave a message in the comment section.