Princess Kate has been wrongly accused of pushing out Queen Camilla in a viral TikTok video viewed over 384,000 times.
The Princess of Wales' year has been dominated by her abdominal surgery and later diagnosis of cancer, which saw her step back from royal duties. And Camilla was left steadying the ship while King Charles III also received treatment following his own cancer diagnosis.
Recent weeks have seen the queen increasingly exposed to conspiracy theories on TikTok, including one suggesting Kate is on the point of ordering her out of the royal family.
The post, liked almost 20,000 times and viewed more than 384,000 times, included narration stating: "Kate Middleton's return, it means that Camilla's departure from the royal family isn't far off.
"On June 15th of this year, after a six month absence, has finally reappeared in public. She wore a little white dress and was accompanied by Princess Charlotte who had also been out of the public eye and Prince Louis.
"The family arrived at Buckingham Palace from their residence to attend the commemorative ceremony," the video added.
"This time Camilla didn't cause any trouble and then mysteriously disappeared from all major events that followed.
"Clearly after Princess Kate's reappear they no longer invited Camilla or her family members. All of this was directly ordered by Kate herself."
However, the wild allegations are easily disproved not least because Camilla completed a royal engagement on Tuesday, when she opened a new cancer center in Bath, southwestern England.
The "commemorative event" referenced was in fact London's Trooping the Colour, King Charles III's birthday parade.
However, Camilla completed numerous royal engagements after that point, including touring the Channel Islands with the king in July.
And perhaps most significantly of all, she accompanied Charles for the State Opening of Parliament following Britain's general election that same month.
State opening is perhaps one of the monarch's most important annual events as it forms part of his constitutional duties.
Newsweek contacted Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace for comment.
While the wild, spurious and inaccurate nature of the video may be easily detectable to some, it did not appear so to the 20,000 people who liked the footage on TikTok.
For the princess, February and March were dominated by a viral social media trend for asking "where is Kate Middleton?"
Numerous wild conspiracy theories were pumped out by social-media accounts with some amplified by celebrities as big as Stephen Colbert, who later acknowledged a skit had failed to meet his own moral standards.
There appear to be a growing number of videos targeting Camilla with spurious allegations on TikTok.
The trend is not anywhere near the scale of the speculation around Kate's absence from public life, but it does speak to a recurring issue for the royals.
Misinformation, gossip and conspiracy theories have been rampant in the social media era and—while many may not believe them—the drama surrounding Kate does demonstrate that there can still be real-life impact.
Jack Royston is Newsweek's chief royal correspondent based in London. You can find him on X, formerly Twitter, at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.
Do you have a question about King Charles III, William and Kate, Meghan and Harry, or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email royals@newsweek.com. We'd love to hear from you.
Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.
