John Oliver has weighed in on the current royal scandal involving Kate Middleton and her whereabouts.
During “Watch What Happens Live” on Tuesday night, host Andy Cohen asked the British comedian his thoughts on the situation, saying: “What the fuck is going on with Kate Middleton?”
“I was out. I thought, ‘Let’s just all ignore this, we’ve moved on,’ until the Photoshop thing,” Oliver said. “It feels like you’re almost handling it badly in an impressive way at this point.”
It all started on Jan. 17, when Kensington Palace announced that the Princess of Wales had undergone a “planned abdominal surgery” for an undisclosed medical condition. It was indicated that she would not resume her public royal duties until after Easter, but rumors began to swirl after Middleton had not been spotted for a prolonged period of time. Then, on Mother’s Day in the U.K. (March 10), a photo of Middleton and her children reportedly taken by Prince William was posted to the couple’s official social media accounts. Internet sleuths quickly pointed out that the photo appeared to be doctored, and soon four major news agencies pulled it from their websites citing signs that it had been “manipulated.”
Middleton then took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to apologize, writing: “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.”
However, Middleton’s X apology has done little to assuage concerns.
“There is a non-zero chance she died 18 months ago,” Oliver said. “They might be ‘Weekend at Bernie’s’-ing this situation. I’m not saying it happened, I’m saying it’s non-zero. Until proved otherwise, until we see her with a copy of today’s newspaper.”
Kensington Palace did not immediately respond to Variety‘s request for comment.
Watch Oliver’s full response below.