Unpacking the Kate Middleton Conspiracies Amid a Tangle of Royal News

And Kate being seen for the first time since her surgery only made some people more convinced that something was awry. “Pippa” started trending on X (formerly known as Twitter) as conspiracy theorists made the case that it was actually Kate’s sister Pippa Middleton sitting in the car alongside mum Carole Middleton in photographs snapped March 4. Cue another wave of where-is-Kate-really hysteria.

The chatter got loud enough that William had to acknowledge it, to a characteristically muted degree.

“His focus is on his work,” his office told People March 6, “and not on social media.”

Sigh, what a time. Come what may, this will never qualify as the most fraught period in royal history (King Henry VIII did have a couple of his wives executed, after all), but for our lifetime, it’s been a lot—and it’s still only March.

Before there’s more, here’s a rundown of the pileup of royal news in 2024 so far: