Tucker Carlson Is The Latest Name In The Kate Middleton Scandal

"I was asked to edit a photograph,  now a quite famous photograph, of the three Cambridge children and the Duchess." Yes, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson  is involved in the newest wrinkle in the Kate Middleton saga. He isn't implicated  in an affair, nor does he have privileged information about the Princess of Wales'  health status. But he did get pranked. The prankers in question were Josh Pieters  and Archie Manners, who have a popular YouTube Channel, Josh & Archie, where they do  somet

imes-elaborate practical jokes. And this one was a doozy: They convinced Carlson that they  were the ones who Photoshopped the now-infamous Mother's Day photo where Kate is seen with  her three kids, George, Charlotte and Louis. In case you have somehow missed all the pomp  and circumstance, here's a quick rundown: Kate got a "planned abdominal surgery" in  late January. According to Kensington Palace, she'd step away from her royal duties until after  Easter, March 31, 2024. But her absence fro

m the public eye sparked wild speculation about  her health, even when photos of her emerged. "You've got some people suggesting that  it isn't her, that it's a body double, that it's her sister, Pippa, and that actually  she's still in a medically-induced coma." So on Mother's Day in the U.K., March  10, the palace released the photo, said to be taken by Prince William, of Kate with  the kids. News agencies quickly noticed it had been edited. Kensington Palace laid the blame on  Kate herself fo

r editing the photo, in a message signed "C" to indicate Kate herself wrote it. Many  didn't buy that Kate would have done that herself. "This is the royal family. They don't do anything themselves. They don't even pick their  own noses. They have butlers for that." So Pieters and Manners stepped forward to claim  they were the ones who did it. And Carlson took the bait. The YouTube duo celebrated their  prank, posting a video about it on March 14: "Tucker Carlson's people have replied." "Saying

what?" "They're calling today at 6 p.m." As of the making of this video, their video has  gotten just over 86,000 views on YouTube. In it, the creators showed that they gave an  interview for the Tucker Carlson Network under the pretense that Manners was a  former employee at Kensington Palace. Apparently, a lot of work went into fooling the  former Fox News star, who now hosts his show on X, formerly Twitter. The YouTube pranksters provided  Carlson's team with a falsified contract claiming th

at Manners worked for the palace and an  in-depth explanation of his job there. They even re-edited the infamous photo of Kate and her  kids to try to prove that they had the original, unedited version or the image. The real  original image has not been released. It really seemed to have Tucker fooled. "We've done our best to verify that your  identity is what you say it is. You're not a fake Navalny. We're not being pranked." In an interview with Deadline, Manners  claimed that flattering Carls

on by giving him the exclusive interview, claiming  that, quote, "the mainstream media in the U.K. wouldn't touch it," helped to get them  on the show. Despite accomplishing that mission, though, they didn't let it get out of hand by  allowing the interview to air, instead posting their video to YouTube and X to let everyone,  including Tucker, know that it was all a joke. Lots of commenters on the duo's YouTube  and X accounts asked why the creators chose to publicize their prank before it  act

ually aired. Manners told Deadline, "We didn't want to cause any more rumors, that are  not true, to go out to lots and lots of people." In a separate interview with TIME, Pieters further explained the reasoning  behind their decision, saying, "We obviously discussed it, but we thought  that it would be a bit irresponsible, potentially, to let the actual interview publish." So while they were more  than happy to prank Carlson, they didn't want to prank the  entire world. Pieters added, "We just

thought that this interview  would obviously go so big on Tucker's channel that it could potentially do some harm. So we thought it was a better idea to get  it up first and to show what we did."