Kate Middleton and the Photoshop seen around the world

When rumors started circulating a couple of weeks ago about the missing Princess of Wales, I rolled my eyes. I am only the most casual of royal observers, meaning all I know about the royals is what I saw on Netflix when I watched all 60 episodes of “The Crown.” But even I knew that Kate Middleton had undergone some unspecified abdominal surgery and would be taking a break from public life while recovering. So while the “Where is Kate?” tweets — many of them very clever — made me laugh, I didn’t take any of them seriously.

The conspiracy theories hit my radar on Feb. 27, when Prince William cited “personal reasons” for backing out of a memorial service for his godfather, the late King Constantine of Greece. Online sleuths assumed that his sudden, vague announcement must mean trouble at home. That trouble, according to social media users, could be anything from marital problems to a death in the family. The latter explanation seemed debunked when TMZ released a paparazzi photo of what seemed to be Kate in a car with her mother, Carole Middleton, on March 4. The grainy photo quieted speculation for all of an afternoon before observers claimed that the photo could be Kate’s sister, or a cardboard cut-out, for all we knew.

Speculation and memes among the conspiracy-minded continued to broil online until March 10, Mother’s Day in the U.K., when the social media accounts of the prince and princess posted a photo of Kate with the couple’s three children. The image had clearly been manipulated. A few hours after the photo was posted, The Associated Press sent out a “kill order” and retracted the photo. Major news organizations pulled the photo from their publications.

The next day, March 11, the official X account for the Prince and Princess of Wales posted, “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. I hope everyone celebrating had a very happy Mother’s Day.”

And that’s when I started to wonder if maybe something really might not be right with the princess, or maybe the entire royal family. That’s also when the conspiracies hit the mainstream entertainment circuit. On Bravo’s “Watch What Happens Live,” John Oliver joked about the rumors, saying there’s a “non-zero chance” that Middleton actually died 18 months ago. And on CBS’ “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” Colbert joked about the royal fiasco.

Since the botched photo was released, conspiracy theories have spiraled into total absurdity, as conspiracy theories are wont to do. I’ve heard everything from the king has died, to Kate wants a divorce and won’t cooperate with Will’s demands, to another woman’s son being Will’s actual firstborn and rightful heir to the throne.

I doubt any of these rumors are true, and this is probably nothing more than a series of baffling PR missteps. But I would be lying if I claimed I didn’t have the BBC website open and refreshed every 15 minutes while I wait for an announcement from the royals. Which I guess means I’m no longer just a casual royal observer or as indifferent as I once thought I was. So, well played, palace.