As videos created by artificial intelligence have become more sophisticated, purveyors of misinformation have started using the likeness of famous news anchors to add credibility to their manipulated videos.
The latest viral video in this genre appears to show Queen Camilla, King Charles III’s wife, saying she is transgender.
A Dec. 30 Facebook video opens with a news anchor resembling ITV News host Tom Bradby saying, “We have an exclusive story that has taken the nation by surprise. Queen Consort Camilla has spoken exclusively to ITV News, delivering a prepared statement regarding her gender.”
The video then appears to show a clip of Camilla saying, “I stand before you today with a heavy heart, deeply sorry for the deception. The recent revelations have undoubtedly caused shock and confusion. I was born a man named Steve, and this secret has weighed heavily on me for many years.”
But the clip isn’t real; it is a manipulated version of a video message Camilla delivered June 2024. There’s no evidence Bradby gave such a report.
(Screenshot of Facebook post)
These posts were flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook.)
The video appears to be a deepfake, a video generated by artificial intelligence that changes faces, bodies or voices, making people appear to do and say things that they never did or said.
Deepfakes are sometimes given away by audio and visual cues, such as a lack of breathing sounds, odd speaking patterns or mouths that move out of sync with the audio. In this case, the existence of an original clip easily shows that it was manipulated.
On June 29, 2024, Camilla delivered a video message on U.K. Armed Forces Day, wearing the same outfit and in front of the same background as the viral Facebook video. She mentions nothing about gender identity in the authentic clip.
(YouTube)
Further evidence that this video is fake is the lack of any credible news outlets reporting on this.
PolitiFact reached out to ITV News about the clip, but we did not hear back before publication.
We rate the claim that Camilla “revealed that she was born a man” Pants on Fire!
Truth-o-meter Ruling
IF YOUR TIME IS SHORT
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The clip is a manipulated version of a message Queen Camilla delivered on U.K. Armed Forces Day in June.
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The video is likely a "deepfake" made with artificial intelligence.
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PolitiFact could find no credible news reports that Queen Camilla made such a statement.
Statement
Context
a videoSpeaker/Target
Statement Date
Our Sources
Facebook post, (archived), Dec. 30, 2024
PolitiFact, "How to detect deepfake videos like a fact-checker," April 19, 2023
The Royal Household, "The Queen's Armed Forces Day Message 2024," June 29, 2024
ITV News, "Find out about ITV News’ Tom Bradby," accessed Jan. 2, 2024
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