Prince William Falls Out Of Public Favor Fast As Cheater Accusations Heat Up

It's not a great week to be the Prince of Wales. In case you need a refresher, all you-know-what broke loose on March 10, when Prince William and Kate Middleton seemingly took matters into their own hands amid rampant speculation and wild conspiracy theories regarding the Princess of Wales' absence from royal duties following a mysterious abdominal surgery. "Thank you for your kind wishes and continued support over the last two months. Wishing everyone a Happy Mother's Day. C," Kate penned in a social media post along with a photo of herself surrounded by the royal couple's three children. All is well that ends well, right? WRONG. Hours after the royal couple hit the "share" button, the Associated Press effectively killed the photo and issued a statement citing that upon a closer inspection, it appeared that the image had been manipulated by the source.

Things went from bad to worse when Kate issued a bizarre excuse for the fake photo controversy. "Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing. I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused," she tweeted. It appears now, however, that many have their pitchforks aimed squarely at Prince William, as rumors of infidelity are once again encircling the future king following the purported Photoshop fail.

In September 2023, a YouGov survey found that Great Britain citizens favored Prince William over his wife, Kate Middleton, by a meager 2%. Alas, the recent turn of events threatens to derail his slim victory. Following the Mother's Day kerfuffle, the hashtag #WilliamIsALiar has been circulating all over Twitter. But why exactly? Way back in 2019, In Touch Weekly sent shockwaves throughout the universe when they reported that Prince William was suspected of stepping out on Kate Middleton and having an affair with a woman by the name of Rose Hanbury. The kicker? Hanbury was a friend of Kate, and the alleged dalliance supposedly went on while Kate was pregnant with the couple's third child, Prince Louis. "It's not surprising the rumors about William and Rose finally leaked to the public — something as big as this can't be kept a secret forever," a source told the celebrity gossip magazine at the time.

Following the Mother's Day photo debacle, some are now theorizing that it's actually all part of a grander scheme to phase poor Kate out and usher Prince William's rumored sidepiece, Hanbury, in. Even comedian Stephen Colbert has entered the group chat. "The kingdom has been all aflutter by the seeming disappearance of Kate Middleton. Well, now, internet sleuths are guessing that Kate's absence may be related to her husband and the future King of England, William, having an affair," he said on the March 12 episode of his famous late-night show.

Still, it's not just the rampant cheating accusations that's got everyone side-eying Prince William. As you may recall, Kate initially gave her royal husband photo cred for the manipulated Mother's Day image. But after the whole thing blew up in their blue blood faces, Kate appeared to walk that back and insist she was the "amateur photographer" responsible for the mistake. "William said he took that pic. Just straight lies for clout. Then like the gentleman he is he threw Catherine under the bus in order to protect himself," one Twitter user wrote. Meanwhile, another tweeted, "William took the photo and Kate is taking the blame!!"

Sadly, this isn't the first time Prince William has been accused of letting someone else take the fall for him. His own brother, Prince Harry, wrote an entire book about it, aptly titled "Spare." Harry discussed the dynamic further in a Netflix doc. "They were happy to lie to protect my brother," he claimed. How exactly will the future king recover from such a spectacle? TBD, we suppose.