Photos show Princess Charlotte in hospital with claims Prince William has announced the “saddest news”.
These images were almost certainly generated using artificial intelligence. There are no reports of Prince William making any such announcement, or of Princess Charlotte being in hospital.
A montage of images appearing to show Princess Charlotte in hospital has been shared thousands of times. But these pictures are not real, and have almost certainly been generated with artificial intelligence (AI). There have been no reports of the princess being unwell.
The montage includes images appearing to show Princess Charlotte in a hospital bed with an oxygen mask and tube under her nose. Her father, Prince William, is at her bedside in one of the images. Another picture shows the Prince of Wales looking concerned, while a fourth image shows a crying woman, which appears to be depicting her mother, Catherine, Princess of Wales.
One Facebook post including the montage has been shared 38,000 times, and says: “Prince William decided to announce the saddest news: ‘My daughter has..see more.” Several other widely shared posts have the same caption, while another says: “Prince William Reveals: His Daughter Battles the Same Illness as Her Mother..see more”, which appears to refer to Princess Catherine previously being diagnosed with cancer. She announced in January 2025 that she was in remission.
A link to the “full story” has been shared in the comment section of the posts, but this webpage offers no further information about Princess Charlotte being in hospital or Prince William making any such announcement.
A closer look at the images shows the hallmarks of AI-generated content. For example, the second button of Prince William’s shirt in one of the photos is not fully formed, and his shirt sleeve doesn’t appear to have the same pattern. The image of the crying woman also has an overly smooth, cartoonish texture and doesn’t closely resemble Catherine.
Moreover, Full Fact could find no credible reports of Princess Charlotte being ill or in hospital. There have been no such announcements on the Royal Family’s website, or social media channels. It would be incredibly unlikely for images like these to be shared at all, especially through unofficial channels.
We’ve previously written about other examples of what are almost certainly AI generated images being shared as if they’re genuine, or mistaken for real images, including those depicting other members of the Royal Family.
It’s important to consider whether what you’re seeing is real before sharing it on social media, and our guide to verifying AI-generated images online offers some tips for doing this.
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as false because the photos are almost certainly AI-generated, and there are no reports Princess Charlotte is in hospital.
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