‘That ain’t Kate’: Andy Cohen joins ‘KateGate’ conspiracy theorists

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Andy Cohen has waded into the social media fray surrounding Kate Middleton’s whereabouts by airing his skepticism over a new vvideo that purportedly showed the missing princess.

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“That ain’t Kate….,” Cohen, 55, shared on X after TMZ released a video of Princess of Wales during a recent outing with Prince William that they claimed was “100% her.”

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Cohen also invited followers to weigh in, sharing a poll on his Instagram Stories. Posting a screenshot from TMZ’s video he asked: “Is this Princess Kate?” As of Tuesday morning, 72% of respondents had voted no.

“They should’ve just paid Steven Spielberg to fake a video of Kate because that TMZ video just made everything worse,” one conspiracy theorist mused, posting an image of Middleton taken last year and a screengrab from the shopping video from the weekend.

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“If Kate Middleton is as well as she looks in this video where she is practically skipping (while) on sick leave, this makes her complicit in creating a circus and chaos around her that has got her international interest but which she could have squashed,” a second critic observed. “So it really makes me think she could be an ATTENTION SEEKER of narcissistic proportions. Can’t really take her seriously when she may have tried to play the world for attention.”

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Despite TMZ’s assurances that it was, in fact, Kate, questions persisted on social media among followers of the saga.

After he shared a photo of the couple telling followers “she’s obviously recovering well,” British television personality Piers Morgan observed the “conspiracy theories have increased.”

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“The ear and chin (are) different,” one person commented on his post. “And why are there Christmas lights?” they asked, calling it a “staged video.”

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“They’ve come back with a different body double,” another accusatory message read. “In the space of two weeks they’ve trotted out 3 different attempts at #FakeKate. Try again Kensington Palace!”

One of the eyewitnesses who saw the pair, Nelson Silva, told TMZ: “Kate looked happy and relaxed. 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.”

But #KateGate and #Katespiracy became top trending items into Tuesday, with one critic using a meme of Tiffany Gomas (last year’s “crazy plane lady”) to show they aren’t buying the newly released clip.

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The online uproar comes after Kate shared a doctored image alongside her three children — Prince George, 10; Princess Charlotte, eight; and Prince Louis, five — to celebrate Mother’s Day earlier this month.

The picture was released as public interest in Kate’s whereabouts gripped the internet. Until it had hit social media, the Princess of Wales had not been seen publicly since December.

In the photo, which was shared on Instagram and X, Kate was seen smiling alongside her kids and she also extended her hearty well wishes to other mothers celebrating their special day.

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But the picture was picked apart by forensic sleuths online, and hours after its release, four major news wire services — Associated Press, Getty Images, Reuters, and AFP — had announced they were pulling the photo from their libraries amid concerns it was manipulated.

Kate issued a statement apologizing for the “confusion” caused by her editing of a family photo.

Last Friday, the global news director of Agence France-Presse declared that Kensington Palace is no longer a “trusted source.”

Rumours that William was in the midst of an affair with Rose Hanbury, the Marchioness of Cholmondeley, also took hold.

But according to Business Insider, Hanbury issued a statement through her lawyers calling the speculation “completely false.”

As chatter over Kate’s whereabouts continue to swirl, one person asked: “If you think Kate was the one who edited the picture & knows how to use Photoshop, I have some Blockbuster stores to sell you. The lies have caught up with (the palace) & everything they put out will be heavily scrutinized.”

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