A 40-year-old father of one, who had gone shopping Saturday for steak at a high-end farm shop near
Windsor Castle, described in an interview how he captured the video that showed a “relaxed and happy”
Kate Middleton leaving the shop with
Prince William — a video that many say should put to rest the monthslong concerns about Kate’s health and whereabouts. Of course, the internet has other ideas. As soon as the video was published Monday and by the
American gossip site new rumors exploded on social media, alleging that the woman seen in the video is not Catherine, the Princess of Wales, but a body double. According to one conspiracy theory, the woman in the video could be Rose Hanbury, the Marchioness of Cholmondeley, who is at the center of yet another unsubstantiated conspiracy theory — that she is William’s mistress. Such is the state of discussion surrounding the
British Royal Family ever since the future
Queen disappeared from public view after
Christmas Day, with
Kensington Palace saying on Jan. 17 that she underwent “planned” abdominal surgery for a mysterious medical condition. On Mother’s Day in the U.K. (March 10), Kensington Palace made things much worse by releasing a photo of Kate and her three children, George, Charlotte and Louis. Purportedly taken by William, the photo sparked global intrigue after it was slapped with a “kill” notice by major news agencies, and Kate subsequently released a statement, admitting that she had engaged in an “amateur”
Job of digital editing. More questions about what’s real and what’s not continued to flourish on Monday, after Getty images issued another warning about a photo coming from Kate, . This was an image of the late
Queen Elizabeth II and 10 of her grandchildren, which was taken by the Princess of Wales in April 2022 but not released by Buckingham Palace until the following year. Getty said that this image, too, had been digitally enhanced, The Telegraph reported. Now, conspiracy theorists have jumped on the farm shop video of Kate and William to spin a tale that the British monarchy is engaging in a massive psyop operation to cover up something very sinister about the future queen. Even American reality TV host and producer Andy Cohen jumped on the bandwagon, maybe jokingly or maybe not, by posting “That ain’t Kate.” But the man who recorded the much-discussed video, showing the princess casually dressed in a hoodie and leggings, has attested to its authenticity. He also has offered a reasonable-sounding explanation for how he managed to be in the right place at the right time to see Kate at the farm shop with her husband. Nelson Silva, 40, he was visiting on Saturday. The shop is a short distance from Kate and William’s home near Windsor Castle, and it sells meat, produce and other goods produced by the royal farms around Windsor Castle, as well as other farms in the area. Silva, a father of one, said he was shopping for steak when he spotted Kate and William in the bread aisle. He said, “I noticed a couple choosing loaves of bread, and the woman turned her face, and I felt like I had seen the face before. It was familiar. I knew it from somewhere.” “Then William turned back and I thought, ‘Hold on I know this person,’” Silva told The Sun. “I said to the staff ‘I think it’s them’ as I paid.” Silva said he went to his car. As the royal couple came out of the shop, each holding shopping bags, Silva said, “I just filmed them.” “I think they walked out through a gate out of the grounds,” he said. “They just vanished and I didn’t see a car.” Silva said he initially shot the video of the couple to share with his family to “show just how normal they were.” “Kate looked happy and relaxed,” he continued. “They look happy just to be able to go to a shop and mingle. Kate looked relieved like it was a success going to a shop. It felt natural.” While Silva didn’t think Kate and William were hiding who they were in the shop, he still got the sense that they didn’t want to linger too long, given all the “build-up” about the her whereabouts. “I got the sense they just wanted to be swift in there,” he said. Arthur Edwards, a royal photographer for The Sun, spoke up for Silva’s video and should “put to rest” cruel rumors about the future queen. “It’s lovely to see Catherine looking so happy. People keep asking me, ‘Where’s Kate? How’s Kate?’” But the video probably won’t put the rumors to rest right away, . It didn’t help that The Sun initially published a story earlier Monday, citing sources who said they saw Kate at the farm shop on Saturday and attending a sporting event for her children on Sunday. But there were no accompanying photos of Kate on either outing. As the Daily Beast said, “If the most famous woman in the world, whose whereabouts has prompted the exchange of countless billions of terabytes of data in recent weeks, went to a kids’ sports match and farm shop over the weekend, wouldn’t someone have got a photo?” Then The Sun and TMZ published the video of Kate at the farm shop. But the whirlpool of conspiracy theories is still in “full gyration,” The Daily Beast said. Best-selling royal author Christopher Andersen pointed out this glimpse of Kate is all too brief. “Every time Kate pops her head above the parapet, it only serves to remind us that we still don’t know what the hell is going on,” He told The Daily Beast. But other PR experts suggested to The Daily Beast and that there could be a strategy to having Kate being seen out in public to address the Mother Day’s Photoshop controversy — specifically to show the world that she isn’t in a coma, hasn’t left William or hasn’t been “disappeared” by the royal family, as some of the conspiracy theories have alleged. The strategy doesn’t come out of some grand psyop operation but could be basic celebrity PR; it would involve having the princess visit a place where she is likely to be photographed by a member of the public. Related Articles Eric Schiffer, a Los Angeles-based crisis public relations and reputation crisis expert, told this news organization that he expected there would be a sighting of the princess in the next week or two. But whatever photos emerged would be “raw,” meaning they wouldn’t be a heavily manipulated “overcorrection” like the Mother’s Day photo, Schiffer said. Norah Lawlor, a
New York publicist and reptation manager, told The Daily Beast that the sighting of Kate at the farm shop points to Kensington Palace employing a “gradated communication strategy” to “work up” her public visibility, as she recovers from surgery and before she officially returns to royal duties. All along, Kensington Palace has said that Kate would recover from her surgery at home and not return to public engagements until after Easter. The Times of
London over the weekend that “after Easter” means mid-April — after the school holidays for George, Charlotte and Louis. The children return to school on April 17. “Kate is still expected to resume public duties from then, though there are no signals yet as to when or where her first engagement will be,” The Times reported. On Monday, there was another rumor going around on
Social Media that Kate would make a statement to the
BBC sometime on Wednesday, or even before, The Daily Beast said. However, another reputation and crisis manager, who asked not to be named, dismissed the idea of Kate doing a BBC interview, telling The Daily Beast: “Interviews with royals on the BBC have not gone well in the past.” In its report, the Times of London cited “a royal source” who said that Kate probably would address her health and recovery at a future public engagement. “If she was going to do it, that’s how she would do it.” A friend also said: “They will want to be clear and more open, but they’ll do it when they feel ready. I would expect that to be her instinct and it will be her call. They’re not going to be rushed.”