Is there any form of chemotherapy capable of curing the conspiracy theories that thrive on social media? If not, perhaps the good people of Silicon Valley could think about ways of making one, because the nutty theories surrounding Friday’s seemingly genuine video from Catherine, princess of Wales, simply won’t go away. One wishes they would.

It is true that there are worse problems in the world right now than the overflowing fountain of global gossip about that poignant video in which the princess of Wales made the shock announcement that she has cancer. The announcement, of course, followed her weeks-long absence after recovering from abdominal surgery and controversy over a family photo which the royal admitted, under pressure, that she had digitally altered. 

Cue the apocryphal stories from the London rumor mill that Kensington Palace wanted to rush out a video about the state of the princess’s health because a dogged Fleet Street scrivener had managed to obtain a facsimile of the princess’s medical records, that the duchess of Sussex (more on Megan Markle in a minute) had cast a nefarious spell from her Montecito lair, you get the picture … as it were. 

Speaking of the American West Coast, who would have thought that anybody other than a Kardashian could still break the Internet? In the case of Ms. Middleton, it appears that absence from the public eye only makes the worldwide appetite for speculation grow stronger — and that is despite the uncommon global fondness and sympathy for the princess of Wales.

Because, just when you thought you have heard every conceivable conspiracy theory about Ms. Middleton, another appears. False rumors about cosmetic surgery and divorce from Prince William were only the start — the wormhole of social media has more surprises in store for a stressed out monarchy that in 2024 is unable to control, or even steer, the narrative.

In the video released on March 22, Ms. Middleton tried to calm the waters. She spoke directly and succinctly about her recent cancer diagnosis and her present  course of preventive chemotherapy which will require more time away from the world’s gaze. While many found the video reassuring in a way, others saw the seeds of deception, if not outright conspiracy. 

Chief among the claims ricocheting around the social networks is that the video was a well-crafted deepfake generated by artificial intelligence. The social platform X is now fairly wobbling under the weight of half-baked assertions to the effect that the Kate Middleton video is based on AI but that members of the public who are unfamiliar with the technology will be easily fooled. 

Examples of the “evidence” of that include claims that the background is too blurry to be real and the breeze appears to be artificial; that the stripes on Kate’s sweater make an odd reflection on the bench where the princess is sitting … and that when played in slow motion, one minute and 19 seconds into the video her ring mysteriously vanishes. Or at least it appears to, for some observers who for reasons unknown to the best minds of science obsess over replaying videos on the Internet and opining about them. 

In a new development that echoes the unfortunate affair of the Taylor Swift deep fakes, the line between renewed claims of digital doctoring and hijacking reality for  sensationalism’s sake is collapsing, too. You didn’t see it here (or did you?), but now videos are popping up that, apparently with the pernicious digital lift of AI, show Meghan Markle’s face transposed onto that of the princess of Wales — and it is as eerily convincing as it is creepy. 

Even the video footage of the princess shopping recently near Windsor alongside her husband is fodder for the Internet’s inexhaustible supply of Doubting Thomases who may need, as it is said around certain New York City water coolers, to get a life.