‘Where is #katemiddleton?’: theories on Kate’s whereabouts go global

Data reveals scale of conspiracies after Kensington Palace's release of altered image of princess with her children

When the Sun published images of the Prince and Princess of Wales shopping at a farm shop at the weekend, it said it was doing so in a bid to end weeks of online speculation which has seen wild conspiracy theories about Kate spread unchecked".

If that was the aim, it certainly has not worked. Do you believe this is Kate Middleton?" is the caption of one TikTok video that has been viewed 3.5m times. Not Kate. Nooo," reads one of the almost 2,000 comments. I'm not even big on the royals and I knew it wasn't her," says someone else. Another video, titled: Where is #katemiddleton? Cause that's not here! [sic]", has 1.1m views.