All eyes are on the royal family right now, with King Charles‘ cancer diagnosis and Kate Middleton‘s recent alleged sighting – which many people think is actually fake – dominating the headlines. And speaking of fake: the British embassy in Moscow was forced to release a statement on Monday, March 18th to confirm that King Charles is still alive, after several Russian internet channels falsely claimed that he had died “unexpectedly.”
Some of the false reports came alongside a Photoshopped statement with the Buckingham Palace logo at the top, reading: “The following announcement is made by royal communications. The King passed away unexpectedly yesterday afternoon.” The fake letter appears to have been copied from Buckingham Palace’s genuine statement confirming the late Queen Elizabeth II’s death in September 2022, which read: “The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon.”
Fake King Charles Death Reports
Readovka, a pro-Kremlin Telegram channel with more than 2.35M subscribers, was among those which briefly covered the fake news, before issuing a correction shortly after. Russian newswire Sputnik also covered it before issuing a correction, writing: "King Charles III of Great Britain has died at the age of 75, according to media reports. There is no information about this on the royal family website or in the British media."
Russian website Gazeta.Ru also covered the fake news, and wrote on X: "King Charles III of Great Britain has died. This is reported by Buckingham Palace. The monarch was 75 years old. He was recently diagnosed with cancer." It was later edited to add: "At the same time, nothing has been written about this in the official British media. Most likely, the information is fake."
Mash also covered the fake story, writing: "Britain's King Charles III has died, Buckingham Palace reports. The son of Elizabeth II ascended the throne less than a year ago – the coronation took place on May 6, 2023. He was 75 years old." It updated the story shortly afterwards to confirm "the message turned out to be fake." It also added: "The King of Great Britain is alive and continues to go about his business. At least that's what Buckingham Palace says."
We would like to inform you that the news about the death of King Charles III is fake. pic.twitter.com/Ilg2GZn0mo
— UK in Ukraine (@UKinUkraine) March 18, 2024
British Embassy Responds To Fake King Charles Death Reports
The British embassy in Moscow took to X very shortly after the fake reports came out, and wrote: "Reports of the death of King Charles III of Great Britain are fake!" The British Embassy in Kyiv also followed suit, and issued its own statement which read: "We would like to inform you that the news about the death of King Charles III is fake."
According to The Independent, Russian government-owned news agency Tass also claimed they had spoken to someone at Buckingham Palace, who had confirmed to them that King Charles "continues to perform work duties and attend to private affairs." At the time of writing, it's unclear whether the fake reports were a genuine mistake or whether, to quote The Independent, they were "deliberately pushed by Russian state media channels to sow chaos."
