YouTubers Prank Tucker Carlson by Saying They Edited the Viral Photo of Kate Middleton

According to HuffPost, Tucker Carlson appeared to have fallen for a prank involving a heavily edited Mother’s Day photo of Kate Middleton, the Princess of Wales, and her children. In a video shared on X, formerly known as Twitter, pranksters Josh Pieters and Archie Manners disclosed that Manners pretended to be a former Kensington Palace employee responsible for the failed editing of the family portrait and was eventually granted an interview with Carlson. Known for their celebrity hoaxes on their YouTube channel, Josh & Archie, the duo successfully duped Carlson with a carefully crafted, fictional narrative.

Furthermore, the fabricated narrative was supported by forged documents, including a phony employment contract crafted by Pieters for Manners. Manners explained that he wanted to test whether Carlson's team would conduct proper fact-checking, leading Pieters to humorously insert a clause in the contract granting the employer the bizarre right to 'amputate one limb of its choosing' if an employee failed their probationary period. Subsequently, Manners was interviewed by Carlson via teleconference from a London studio, according to MSNBC's report.

The pair disclosed that they released their video before Carlson's show to prevent the spread of misinformation. Manners said, “We didn’t want to cause any more rumors, that are not true, to go out to lots and lots of people. We just didn’t want to be too worthy about that in our video.” Throughout his career, Carlson has encouraged disproven conspiracy theories and given a platform to outlandish claims. It remains uncertain whether Carlson would have aired the interview had the prank not been made public, but the possibility cannot be dismissed.

In other news, The New York Post recently revealed that an image captured by Middleton, depicting the late Queen Elizabeth II with her grandchildren, was also digitally edited. This information came to light after a photo agency examined the photograph following the scandal surrounding the Princess of Wales' Mother's Day portrait. The picture shows the late Queen seated on a couch with 10 of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren inside Balmoral Castle. 

Last week, major news websites issued an alert regarding a photo shared by Middleton featuring herself and her three children after discovering that it had been manipulated. The Princess later confessed that she had edited the image. She said in a statement, “Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing. I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused.”

The manipulated image intensified speculations about her whereabouts, as she had not made any public appearances for several weeks following her abdominal surgery. Her absence from public view since Christmas Day of the previous year had already sparked curiosity and rumors, which were only increased by the edited photograph. On her birthday, the Prince and Princess of Wales reportedly opted for a more intimate and low-key celebration, which was in line with her preference.