On April 24, 2024, a Twitter user with the handle @MeghanHarryFans alleged that Prince William shared a two-year-old photo of his third child, Prince Louis, on social media to mark his son's sixth birthday the day before. Prince Louis turned six on April 22 and the photo posted by Prince William showed his son smiling on his birthday.
The user claimed that the supposedly recent photo of the six-year-old appeared in an article dated April 23, 2022, on the website of the ABC morning show "Good Morning America," which that the image was taken in 2022, not 2024. However, that is not true as the photo is an original one.
Wild Claim
The user also shared a screenshot comparing an April 2024 post from the Prince and Princess of Wales' official Instagram account with an April 2022 article from GMA, both featuring the same photo of Prince Louis.
The caption accompanying the screenshots read: "I've just caught Prince William LYING again. The birthday photo supposedly Prince William and Kate released for their youngest son'd [sic] birthday was supposed to be recently taken by Catherine (Kate) Middleton, but an April 23, 2022, article by GOOD MORNING AMERICA is using the same photo Kensington Palace claims was recently photographed by Kate. Now, the questions are: Is Kate dead? Is Prince Louis dead? The public has NOT SEEN Princess Charlotte, so are Kate, Charlotte, and Louis dead? Evidence has proven that Prince William is LYING again!"
The post went viral immediately. Similar allegations surfaced on various platforms including X, Facebook, and Reddit. These claims collectively garnered over 150,000 interactions at the time of reporting.
False Claim
However, the claim was deemed "False," as the appearance of the 2024 photo alongside the 2022 article seemed to be a technological glitch that was eventually corrected.
The image of Prince Louis did indeed appear as the thumbnail of a video included in the April 2022 GMA article.
Also, there is no evidence that the photo appeared in the 2022 article when looking at archived versions of the webpage from April 2022.
In fact, a version of the April 2022 article archived as recently as January 31, 2024, showed a different thumbnail for the video.
Hence, it appears that the new birthday photo was added recently as a thumbnail for the video to make it relevant to the 2024 article. However, this action inadvertently caused the thumbnail to also appear in the 2022 article. This can occur when news outlets update videos for use in newer articles.
The false claim stems from a recent family photo posted by Kate Middleton in early March that emerged to be digitally altered, which the Princess also admitted a day after several photo agencies pulled the photo.
However, this claim is completely false and baseless.
