It’s not really that surprising that there are so many conspiracy theories surrounding the Royal Family. Pretty much everyone born into this family has immense wealth, fame, and most of all, power from the day they are born. And when the average person thinks about a secretive, growing family of some of the most powerful people in the world, it’s hard not to wonder what secrets they are really guarding.
Obviously, there is no way of proving any of these as true (that’s why they are conspiracy theories), so we’ll leave it up to you to determine which of these rings truer than the others. Just what are the wildest conspiracy theories about the Royal Family? Keep reading to find out!
Prince Philip secretly had affairs
When Prince Philip died in 2021, it felt like the end of an era. He had been married to the queen for 70 years and became a complex public figure in his own right. After his death, many spoke about everything from Philip’s temper to his sometimes strange sense of humor, but the general consensus was that he was always a faithful and steadfast husband.
However, there were rumors of Prince Philip having several affairs over the years, with the first of these alleged affairs occurring way back in the 1940s. These rumors have gained new traction because they have been dramatized by the popular Netflix show The Crown. And it doesn’t help that other prominent royals (most notably King Charles) had affairs that went public, leading many to think that Phillip was simply better at hiding his secret lovers than Charles.
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Charles and Diana had a secret daughter
Pop quiz: how many children did Charles and Diana have together? It may not seem like a trick question because everyone knows who their two sons are. Prince Harry and Prince William are some of the most recognizable faces on the planet, and William is destined to be the future King of England. But what if these two had a secret sister they never met?
Back in 2015, the tabloid The Globe published a story that Kate Middleton had gone to America to visit a young woman who the newspaper claimed was the secret daughter of Charles and Diana. But here’s where it gets even stranger: the theory goes that a rogue doctor stole one of Diana’s eggs during a fertility exam she took to make sure she could have children. Furthermore, this wild theory alleges the doctor fertilized the egg himself, which would mean that Harry and William have a secret half-sister out there!
This has never been substantiated in any way, but it’s interesting to think that after “Megxit” and moving to America, Harry would be able to see this alleged secret sister as often as he wants to.
Princess Diana was murdered
As far as conspiracy theories about the Royal Family go, some are more popular than others. And given how popular Princess Diana was in life and how sudden and shocking her death was, it didn’t take long for many to start saying they didn’t believe Diana’s death was an accident. Instead, they believed that she was killed, most likely under the orders of the Queen.
And unlike most of the other royal conspiracies, this one has a (slight) bit more evidence behind it. Paul Burrell once served as Diana’s butler, and in his book A Royal Duty, he made the fantastic claim that Diana sent him a letter about 10 months before her death. He claims that in this letter, Diana not only speculated there was a conspiracy for her to die in a car crash (freeing then-Prince Charles up to marry Camilla) but that she named names.
However, Burrell’s book redacts those names, most likely so he didn’t get sued into the ground. But this only fueled speculation about who it could be, with many tabloids assuming it was none other than Queen Elizabeth who ordered the alleged hit.
RELATED: The Tragic Story Of Princess Diana And Dodi Fayed’s Steamy Relationship
William and Harry are only half-brothers
These days, it’s an open secret that Prince William and Prince Harry aren’t as close as they once were. Still, many assume they will eventually reconcile because they are brothers, and blood must be thicker than drama. However, some believe that blood may be thinner than we think because William and Harry are only half-brothers.
As with Diana being secretly murdered, this theory has at least a modicum of circumstantial evidence. The theory goes that younger brother Harry was secretly fathered by someone other than Prince Charles: James Hewitt, Diana’s horseriding teacher. And thanks to Hewitt later going public about it, we know that he and Diana really did have a love affair. Just one problem with this theory, though: Hewitt and Diana only hooked up two years after Harry was born, meaning there is no way for Hewitt to be Harry’s dad.
“Queen” Elizabeth was a man
It’s easy to dismiss many of these conspiracy theories as either the fevered imaginings of fans or the cynical headlines of tabloids just trying to make a buck. However, one of the craziest theories of all came from one of the most well-respected figures in literary history. According to Bram Stoker, the author of Dracula, “Queen” Elizabeth I was secretly a man.
How does this work, exactly? In Stoker’s nonfiction book Famous Imposters, Stoker devoted the final chapter to a theory concerning the time that the Queen had to leave London to avoid the bubonic plague when she was 10. As the daughter of King Henry VIII, it was important her royal bloodline be guarded, but Stoker’s theory contends that the real Elizabeth actually died in the country, leading her frantic nanny to try to find a replacement so that the King wouldn’t hurt her.
Here’s where it gets even weirder: Stoker’s theory is that the nanny found a boy who resembled the princess well enough to not only pass as a woman but to eventually become the Queen of England. And while most of this was Stoker adapting old folktales, he added the wrinkle that the young boy who allegedly replaced the real Elizabeth was actually one of the King’s many illegitimate children, which helps to explain the clear family resemblance between them.