Pranksters claiming to be a Kensington Palace employee being fired over the fiasco involving the edited Kate Middleton photograph say they duped former Fox News host Tucker Carlson into interviewing them about the affair for his streaming show.
In a video posted on X that has already received more than a million views, Josh Pieters and Archie Manners explained how they had concocted a story about being released from duties by the Prince and Princess of Wales for “not doing a good enough job” in manipulating a photograph of Middleton and her children that has stoked an international furore and endless conspiracy theories.
The “disgruntled former employee” act was apparently convincing enough to fool production staff at the Tucker Carlson Network (TCN), who invited Mr Manners, posing as the royal couple’s former digital content creator, to a London studio and an interview with the right-wing personality.
“That was great, and really interesting too. I didn’t expect to be as interested in it as I was because you told a really great story,” Carlson tells Mr Manners after listening to a made-up tale about how the infamous photograph was actually taken by Middleton’s uncle in December, and that a Christmas tree in the background had to be edited out.
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The pranksters, whose YouTube channel Josh & Archie showcases a series of celebrity dupes, told Deadline they “stroked Carlson’s ego” by offering their story as an exclusive, because “mainstream media in the UK wouldn’t touch it”.
They convinced TCN researchers of their authenticity by creating a fake contract of employment that featured the words Every Little Helps, the motto of the British supermarket chain Tesco, in Latin on a Kensington Palace crest, and a clause in which the royals reserved the right to “amputate one limb of their choosing” if Manners failed a probationary period.
“If Tucker Carlson’s people read this, why on earth would they let you on the show?” Pieters says in the video.
Manners told Deadline that following the interview, TCN told him it would be aired early the next week, but that he and Pieters decided to break cover now to avoid misinformation being broadcast to the network’s 530,000 followers on X.
“We didn’t want to cause any more rumours, that are not true, to go out to lots and lots of people,” he said. “We just didn’t want to be too worthy about that in our video.”
[ Princess of Wales photograph: Six telltale signs that family portrait was editedOpens in new window ]
In the interview, Carlson questions Manners about the photograph, which was recalled by several photo agencies when numerous anomalies were discovered. A subsequent palace statement explaining Middleton was experimenting with editing “like many amateur photographers do” failed to offer reassurance and set in motion a chain of headline-dominating events that even prompted questions at the White House.
“When William and Kate put that photo out, they knew that photo was taken at Christmas, and they put it out alongside a statement wishing everyone a happy Mother’s Day, and told the world that William took it,” Manners tells Carlson.
“He didn’t take it. Gary Goldsmith [Middleton’s uncle] took it.”
In their initial emailed approach to TCN, the pair posed as a palace employee named George, who said he was “about to be scapegoated” for the furore and was “in the process of being let go”.
“I am all too aware of the [British] royal family’s ability to throw people like me under the bus in order to protect their reputation,” the email states.
The Guardian has contacted TCN for comment. – Guardian service