Pranksters scammed Tucker Carlson: they photoshopped a portrait of Kate Middleton with children

The jokers revealed themselves out of a desire not to spread fake news.

In a conversation with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, pranksters Josh Peters and Archie Manners posed as Kensington Palace employee “George.” They said that the fictitious man was fired because of the scandal with the photo of the Princess of Wales. Pranksters claim they tricked a journalist into interviewing them for his streaming show.

In a video posted to Platform X (formerly Twitter), which has already racked up more than a million views, Josh Peters and Archie Manners explained how they came up with the story that the Prince and Princess of Wales fired a certain “George” for “not doing a good enough job of manipulating photograph of Kate and her children,” which caused an international outcry and fueled endless conspiracy theories about the fate of Kate Middleton.

“I am all too aware of the Royal Family’s ability to set people like me up to protect their reputation,” “George” told a reporter.

The image of a “disgruntled former employee” was convincing enough for the Tucker Carlson Network (TCN) production staff to invite Manners to the London studio for an interview.

“It was great and also really interesting. I didn’t expect it to interest you as much as it did me, because you told a really great story,” Tucker Carlson told Manners after he listened to the made-up story that the infamous photo was actually taken by Middleton’s uncle in December and that the Christmas tree in the background had to be removed.

The pranksters film and post a series of celebrity pranks on social media, telling Deadline they “struck Carlson’s ego” by offering their story as an exclusive because “mainstream UK media wouldn’t cover it.”

They convinced TCN workers of their identity by creating a fake employment contract that included the words Every Little Helps, the motto of the British supermarket chain Tesco, written in Latin on the coat of arms of Kensington Palace, and a clause in which members of the royal family reserved the right to “ampute a single limb.” of his own choice” if the employee’s manners are not in keeping with the palace during the probationary period.

“If Tucker Carlson’s people are reading this, why on earth would they let you be on the show?” Josh Peters says at the beginning of the video.

Archie Manners admitted to Deadline that TCN told him after the interview that it would air early next week, which is why he and Peters decided to come out of cover now to avoid spreading misinformation to social network X’s 530,000 followers.

“We didn’t want more rumors that weren’t true to spread among too many people,” he explains.

In the interview, Carlson questions Manners about the photo, which was recalled by several photo agencies when numerous inconsistencies were discovered. The palace’s subsequent statement, which explained that Middleton was experimenting with editing “as many amateur photographers do,” did not reassure the public.

“When William and Kate posted this photo, they knew it was taken at Christmas, and they released it along with a statement wishing everyone a Happy Mother’s Day and telling the world that William took it,” Manners tells Carlson.