The Kate Middleton scandal shows the Royal Family can’t contend with social media sleuths

If you’ve been online at all this month you’ve probably come across at least one conspiracy theory about princess Kate Middleton’s whereabouts.

They range from brilliantly nonsensical (that she’s been filming for the reality singing competition The Masked Singer), to wildly elaborate (that she’s quietly donated an organ to King Charles), to hair-raising  (that Prince Williams is somehow involved in some sort of foul play).

The Princess of Wales has not been seen since late 2023, and inconsistent public statements and photos from Kensington Palace of Middleton—including one proven to be doctored—have only fueled more speculation and public frenzy.

Because the Royal Family has historically shrouded their personal affairs in secrecy and controlled their narratives in the British press, we may never know what really happened to Middleton. The real scandal, Royals enthusiasts and content creators tell Fast Company, is the Monarchy’s outdated approach to technology.

The world has outpaced the most famous Western dynasty, and all of the embarrassment and critiques the Royal Family has faced over the Middleton controversy “is their own doing,” as TikToker Rachel Labrecque put it.

“Everything that is about to come their way is their own doing,” says Labrecque, a 27-year-old self-ascribed “corporate girlie” based in New York, speaking about all the public scrutiny the Royal Family has faced. “They stand for a lot of things that are outdated. Their PR strategy is one of them.”

In fairness, fan theories around celebrities will always run rampant online. Labrecque herself shared a viral TikTok theory on Wednesday speculating that  Middleton plotted her own disappearance in order to force Prince William to stay faithful in their marriage. Her conspiracy video has received over three million views.

But still, the Monarchy has done itself no favors throughout this whole ordeal, and has not fully grasped the power of what Labrecque calls “sleuthing on the internet.”

Earlier this week, the Associated Press issued an official “photo kill” notice for an image of Middleton with her three children that was released by Kensington Palace and was quickly proved to be photoshopped. How, people wondered, does an entity with so much money and power not have someone on hand with the tech-savvy to produce a high-quality doctored image? The photo snafu prompted Middleton to release a statement on X saying she “occasionally experiment[s] with editing”—a mea culpa that seemed to many equally suspect.

Several other images released by Royal Press that purported to show Middleton have also been highly scrutinized by amateur detectives.

“I think it’s possible that whoever is running PR for the Royal Family is clearly out of touch,” says Virginia-based editor and TikToker Caro Claire Burke, who’s posted several viral videos unpacking Middleton conspiracies.

Burke believes the ongoing controversy is the long-destined consequence of keeping women in the Royal Family silent and stripped of their agency. “Meghan was supposed to usher the Royal Family into modernity and it was a disaster,” she says, referring to Meghan Markle’s brief and strained time in the family, and her controversial exit. She believes that unless the Monarchy modernizes, starting first with its PR and allowing its members to manage their own narratives, it will continue to be outpaced by a more progressive and tech-obsessed internet.

And tech is moving fast—faster than the world can keep up with, much less an antiquated bourgeois society. Advancements in sleuthing and AI manipulations are only going to erode more trust in an institution like the Royal Family. Their fans and closest observers are only going to grow more suspicious of what’s being put out about them, creating the perfect breeding ground for more conspiracies to bloom. They may also begin to demand more transparency from Buckingham and Kensington Palace, which will invariably spark a quiet war between powers that want total control and a public that wants the truth.

For now, Royal Family enthusiasts and sympathizers hope they receive the ongoing controversy as a wake-up call. “There’s still a high chance Middleton is totally fine, and there is a practical reason for what’s happening,” Burke says. “I do think there’s a lot of credibility to these marital dispute arguments. I genuinely wouldn’t be surprised if there was nothing of consequence and the Royal Family is just imploding in front of our eyes.”

https://www.fastcompany.com/91061001/kate-middleton-scandal-social-media-sleuths?partner=rss&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=rss+fastcompany&utm_content=rss