'There's no body double running around here,' CBS News royal contributor Amanda Foreman tells ET.
Kate Middleton's public outing with Prince William around the Windsor Farm Shop did very little to dial down the fever-pitch controversy that's engulfed the royal couple and Buckingham Palace. And the conspiracy theories have gotten so out of hand that at least one royal expert is compelled to say there's no Kate body double running around amid swirling speculation of her whereabouts.
ET's Nischelle Turner spoke with CBS News royal contributor Amanda Foreman, who is weighing in on the Photoshop fail controversies (yes, there's now more than one), her latest public appearance and whether Kensington Palace is in full-blown damage control. But first, the farm shop photo. The Princess of Wales was spotted with William a mile from their Windsor home on Saturday, as seen in video footage obtained by TMZ.
Kate appeared to be smiling and happy as they enjoyed the romantic stroll. But while, for some, that video put wild speculation of her whereabouts to rest, others were just not convinced. In fact, some have resorted to wondering if that truly was Kate walking alongside William.
"Well, it is obviously Kate," Foreman says. "There's no doubt about that. There's no body double running around here."
That a royal expert has to weigh in on such an outlandish claim speaks to the problem at hand for Buckingham Palace, which is that continuing to stay mum on the subject is only compounding the problem.
"The conspiracy theories are getting a huge lift because, first of all, Kate and William were being secretive," Foreman explains. "And then the photograph made them look manipulative. So, you put those two together, and that's like the ingredients for an explosion of conspiracy theories."
And, yes, to be clear -- Kate does not have a body double.
"I am absolutely 100 percent clear that it is not a body double for that to happen," Foreman says in the affirmative. "You would have to have a revolution in Kensington Palace, and that everybody who works there would have to be working two completely different practices."
The latest photo controversy came Tuesday, when Getty Images released a statement saying the 2022 image featuring the late Queen Elizabeth with her great-grandchildren and snapped by Kate at Balmoral in August 2022 was "digitally enhanced at source."
A spokesperson told The Telegraph on Monday, "Getty Images has reviewed the image in question and placed an editor’s note on it, stating that the image has been digitally enhanced at source." This revelation comes just days after Phil Chetwynd, the global news director at Agence France-Presse, told BBC Radio that Buckingham Palace is "absolutely" no longer a trusted source in wake of the Photoshop scandal.
So, when taking a step back and looking at the collective and continuous mishaps, it begs the question if the palace has a giant PR problem on its hands.
"Well, there's a tension here. In terms of the credibility issue, the press has a credibility issue. And so that needs to be sorted out, because if the press doesn't believe the credibility of the royals that just filters through everything," Foreman explains. "And now that is a massive PR problem, and they're gonna have to fix that."
Easier said than done. But Foreman believes the fix is "not that difficult," saying that the fix is to allow the public to see Kate before the Easter deadline the palace set itself following her abdominal surgery. Again, easier said than done.
"They hate to be bullied. They hate it," Foreman says. "It literally sends them into a tailspin. So, when the public or the press demands to see Kate sooner than they said, which is after Easter, they [pinned] their ears back like a donkey. So, I doubt that we will [see them before Easter]. And if we do, then you know there is a genuine panic."
Foreman says that there's still a tremendous amount of goodwill towards the royal couple, but specifically for Kate. That being said, the secrecy behind her whereabouts is only adding fuel to these conspiracy theories.
"When there isn't a story, people will make one up," Foreman says. "That's just human nature. And that's the real mistake here that's been allowed to happen."
RELATED CONTENT:
