BBC reporter says Kate at farm was ‘lookalike’

A BBC sports reporter appeared to promote conspiracy theories about the Princess of Wales by suggesting it was a “lookalike’ who was photographed over the weekend.

The Princess, whose absence from public life while she has been recovering from surgery has sparked a flurry of bizarre conspiracy theories, was pictured visiting the Windsor Farm Shop on Saturday.

Video and photographs emerged on Monday night capturing the 42-yearold alongside the Prince of Wales on a shopping trip close to her Adelaide Cottage home.

It follows weeks of speculation that have seen a raft of conspiracy theories about the Princess’ health spread across social media, among them that the woman pictured since the Princess’s absence is an actress or lookalike. The BBC’S rugby specialist Sonja Mclaughlan echoed this theory online, suggesting the individual seen shopping alongside Prince William was not his wife, but a double. She also suggested Prince William could have been replaced by an actor.

Commenting on a video which compares the individual in the latest footage against past pictures of the Princess, Mclaughlan wrote: “It’s so obviously not Kate. Some newspapers are reporting it as fact. But it’s not her. No conspiracy theorist but all very odd.”

She added to her post on X, formerly Twitter: “It’s disturbing that newspapers are reporting this as fact. Headline ‘Kate seen in public for the first time’ when it’s clearly not her. As someone has said. Could be a couple of lookalikes making mischief.”

The BBC has been contacted for comment. It comes after a photograph released by Kensington Palace, showing the Princess of Wales with her children, was last week recalled by five of the world’s biggest picture agencies over fears it had been “manipulated”.

The image, taken by the Prince of Wales in Windsor earlier this week, showed the Princess looking happy and healthy after her surgery. It was the first authorised picture of her since Christmas and was released on Mothering Sunday.

The photograph had been intended, in part, to reassure the public about her health, after she had spent weeks at home recovering from a major abdominal operation.

But it was recalled by photo agencies Getty, Associated Press, Agence Francepresse, Shutterstock and Reuters, which put out a “kill notice” to halt their distribution of the picture.