There’s been so much said about Kate Middleton over the past two months that it seems as though there’s barely been an aspect of her life that hasn’t been combed through.
If you count yourself among those who genuinely find the reams of speculation and endless conspiracy theories interesting then you’re in luck: today there’s more of it to go through in the form of comments made about Kate’s appearance in a video reportedly taken at the weekend.
Chances are you’ve likely seen the clip in question. It shows Kate Middleton walking alongside Prince William, with the pair said to have taken a trip to one of the Princess of Wales’s favorite farm shops, located close to Adelaide Cottage.
As is the case with virtually anything Kate-centric these days, the video has been hotly-debated. Instead of merely accepting it for what it is – the first footage of Kate since her January surgery – some internet users are convinced that the woman in the video isn’t Kate at all, and that the Royal Family are persisting in the mother of all coverups.
The rise of the doubters, of course, is partly the blame of the royals themselves. Their lack of updates since Kate’s “planned abdominal procedure” earlier this year created a vacuum in which conjecture and rumor have been given the necessary space to thrive.
Add to that the whole debacle surrounding Kate’s Mother’s Day image – the one that was withdrawn by the world’s leading photo agencies over fears it had been “manipulated” – and there are, admittedly, strong grounds for suspicion.
As per the reports, the man who filmed Kate at the weekend has even thrown his two cents into the mix in an attempt to reassure the naysayers that there is nothing seedy going on.
Nelson Silva, 40, was at the Windsor Farm Shop Saturday afternoon when he spotted the royal couple near the bread section. It wasn’t until the woman turned her head that Silva realized he “knew” her.
He ended up standing behind the couple while in the meat section and witnessed them interacting with the staff.
“I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but the staff seemed overwhelmed in a nice way. When I went to pay for my produce, the girl at the counter was so shocked she was hardly breathing,” he told The Sun.
“Everyone in there was very excited. It was a really nice atmosphere.”
Silva, who claimed he had no idea “Kate was so much in the news”, then went outside to take a short video for his family in Portugal.
“I started to record as they [Kate and William] walked towards the car park. They just looked very happy and relaxed together,” he said. “William was obviously protective of Kate and I quickly stopped recording because I didn’t want to make them uncomfortable.”
After sharing the clip with his family over WhatsApp, family members couldn’t believe what they saw.
“They were like, ‘Oh god, she’s alive! She hasn’t been seen since last year’. I’m not really into gossip and celebrities, I like to go fishing and to my allotment.”
Silva’s video naturally garnered plenty of attention online, and not all of the people commenting on it were content to accept it as the first proper sighting of Kate in nearly three months.
Others, of a decidedly more conspiratorial mind, suggested that the woman in the video wasn’t Kate, or that perhaps it was but the Princess must have undergone some sort of facial procedure.
“She had something done to her face😳” one person wrote.
“Omg she did a facelift😳” another added.
“She looks emaciated…very thin and gaunt,” a third person said.
A fourth noted: “She’s lost a LOT of weight.”
It should be said that there were people in the comments box actively defending Kate, particularly those rightly pointing out that the Princess may look slightly different as a result of her surgery and subsequent recovery.
What do you think? Do you see any reason to believe that it isn’t Kate Middleton in the clip? Let us know in the comments.
