YouTube star poses as palace worker behind photoshop fail in Tucker Carlson interview

The speculation around Kate Middleton’s health and whereabouts has grown even more in recent days, as a YouTube star tricked a high-profile television host by claiming to be a former Kensington Palace employee who had digitally manipulated the Mother’s Day photo himself.

Tucker Carlson, a former prime-time host for Fox News show Tucker Carlson Tonight from 2016-2023, was contacted by Archie Manners, who co-runs the prank and comedy channel Josh & Archie with Josh Pieters.

Manners pretended to be a former Kensington Palace employee named George who worked as a “digital content creator” for the royals’ socials. He claimed to have been tasked with editing the Mother’s Day photo of Kate Middleton and her three children, which was subsequently killed by news agencies worldwide and created a media storm in response.

Despite lacking any real work experience as a royal staffer, Carlson’s team approved having Manners on his social media channel, Tucker on X, for an interview.

“We’ve done our best to verify that your identity is what you say it is, you’re not a fake Navalny or doing a prank or anything,” Carlson opened in the interview, citing the Russian opposition leader and political activist Alexei Navalny, who died while imprisoned in Siberia in February.

Many Western government officials, international organisations and NGOs have blamed Vladimir Putin and the Russian authorities for Navalny’s death. Earlier in February, Carlson became the first Western journalist to interview Putin since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began two years earlier.

But it was not until after the interview had concluded that Manners and Pieters revealed their real identities. They informed Carlson and his team to ensure their interview would not be taken seriously by the presenter’s devoted followers.

The interview has not been aired on Tucker on X, although Manners and Pieters have uploaded it to their YouTube channel.

The bold prank played out as speculation about Kate’s health increasingly made headlines. The Mother’s Day photo released by the Wales’ was meant to quell concerns but was instead flagged for digital manipulation, further generating international interest in her whereabouts and wellbeing.

When Manners reached out to Carlson’s team by email posing as “George”, he created a fake backstory about where the photo originally came from.

“I assisted in creating the image, at the Wales’ request. As the image was found to be edited, I am now about to be scapegoated, and am in the process of letting go,” he wrote in the email.

The first official picture of Kate released since surgery left the royals in embroiled in controversy over the past week as it was quickly killed by news agencies due to "digital manipulation". Photo / Instagram

“Ordinarily I would be discreet in these matters, but I am all too aware of the royal family’s ability to throw people like me under the bus in order to protect their reputation.

“They are not telling the truth about the princess’ health, and are now willing to fire staff in order to conceal the truth.”

Through a later conversation over the phone with an employee of Carlson’s, Manners doubled down on his story, in which he discussed working with the royals and laid claim to the edited photo, adding that he lost his job over the incident.

The employee requested to see proof of employment while also asking to see the unedited photo. Once the conversation ended, Manners reached out to Pieters and asked him to make a “silly” employment contract and edit the doctored photo once more to make it seem “unedited”.

Pieters created a fake employment contract with a Kensington Palace symbol to make it more legitimate. One clause in the contract claimed the palace could amputate any limb they chose if the employee did not succeed in their probation period.

To make the Mother’s Day photo look “original”, Pieters placed a Christmas tree behind the family and added a rugby ball by their feet, while removing Kate’s hand from Princess Charlotte’s waist.

Carlson’s team were then sent this information for verification, which they accepted as legitimate. Manners subsequently booked a Westminster TV studio to interview with Carlson online.

As the interview began, Manners was asked what work he did for Kate Middleton as an alleged royal staffer.

“Just before the coronation, I was asked to help out with some of their videography. I was then taken on in mid-May as their producer of digital content,” Manners replied, claiming that he remained there until he was fired the morning before the interview.

“I was asked to edit a photograph, a now quite-famous photograph, of the three Cambridge children and the duchess, which was released to celebrate Mother’s Day.

“I was fired for negligence because the editing that I did was found. The reason the editing was shoddy is the editing job was almost too big to do.”

Manners followed on to claim the photo dated back to around Christmas, meaning that he had to remove the Christmas tree from the frame, and that it was Kate’s uncle who took the photo, not Prince William, as originally stated by the royals.

The re-edited photo, with a Christmas tree, rugby ball and a missing hand, was enough to dupe Carlson's team into letting Manners on his show. Photo / YouTube

“It is an amazing story,” Carlson said. “You did this with their knowledge, you’re saying. You edited out the Christmas tree and removed a hand with their knowledge?”

Manners replied in agreement with a nod.

By the end of the interview, Carlson thanked Manners for his contribution to a “great” and “really interesting” conversation.

Manners and Pieters were later told that the episode would come out “early next week” on Carlson’s new streaming platform, although whether it will be released has been called into question now the pranksters have revealed their own identities.

While talking to Deadline last week, Manners explained the two chose to reveal themselves after they became concerned about promoting disinformation to Carlson’s huge following base, which includes over 12.6 million followers on X (formerly Twitter) alone.

“We didn’t want to cause any more rumours, that are not true, to go out to lots and lots of people,” he said. “We just didn’t want to be too worthy about that in our video.”

Manners and Pieters have amassed nearly 1.5 million subscribers on their YouTube channel, Josh & Archie.

The mischievous duo are well-known for their pranks, which have included flying far-right political commentator Katie Hopkins to Prague so she can receive a fake award and duping fans at a boxing match into thinking an Ed Sheeran look-alike was the real Ed Sheeran.