YouTubers said they pranked Tucker Carlson by pretending to be a royal employee behind the Kate Middleton photo fiasco
YouTubers pranked Tucker Carlson by claiming to be a palace official who edited an image of Kate Middleton.
One pretended they had been fired for doctoring the image.
The internet has been awash with conspiracy theories about the princess's whereabouts.
Two YouTubers said they pranked right-wing TV host Tucker Carlson by pretending to be the royal employee behind the Kate Middleton photo fiasco.
London-based YouTubers Josh Pieters and Archie Manners said they sent Carlson's team an email pretending to be Kate and Prince William's digital content creator, saying they'd been fired for poorly editing an image of the princess.
In a video shared on X, formerly Twitter, the two YouTubers said they faked employment paperwork to dupe Carlson's producers of the Tucker Carlson Network (TCN) into setting up an interview.
The pranksters invented an employment contract to fool using a Kensington Palace crest and a clause that stated the royals reserved the right to "amputate one limb of their choosing" if Manners failed a probationary period.
"We've done our best to verify that your identity is what you say it is, you're not a fake Navalny or doing a prank or anything," Carlson said in the video.
Manners told Carlson that the image of Kate, which was released on the UK's Mother's Day on March 10, was actually taken during Christmastime, and he said that he had to edit out a Christmas tree from the photo.
"It's an amazing story. You did this with their knowledge, you're saying. You edited out a Christmas tree and removed a hand with their knowledge?" Carlson said.
By the end of the interview, Carlson appears to be thrilled with the exclusive.
"That was great, and it was really interesting, too; I did not expect to be as interested in it as I was, and that was because you told such a great story," he said.
The YouTubers ended the clip by claiming that Carlson's team said the segment would likely air next week to TCN's 530,000 followers on X.
Royal conspiracy theories
Manners told Deadline that they decided to share the prank before it was broadcast because they didn't want to feed more disinformation about the Princess of Wales.
The internet has been rife with conspiracy theories about the princess's whereabouts and well-being in recent weeks, and the Mother's Day photo released by Kensington Palace did nothing but add more fuel to the fire.
Multiple photo agencies, including AP, AFP, and Reuters, withdrew the photo from their sites over editorial concerns, and the Princess of Wales later released a statement on social media admitting that she had edited the image.
The Princess of Wales's last official appearance was at Christmas.
Kensington Palace announced in January that she had undergone "planned abdominal surgery" and was expected to be recovering until Easter.
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