It’s official, the Kate Middleton conspiracy theories have reached peak deranged. After videos of the Princess of Wales shopping in Windsor over the weekend were published by TMZ, those determined to believe in a Palace cover up are insisting that the woman in the video is not Kate at all, but lookalike actor Heidi Agan who has portrayed Kate in bookable appearances for the last 12 years.
On social media, conspiracy theorists are posting side-by-side images of Kate and Heidi next to the admittedly low-quality video taken by an onlooker who spotted the Wales’ at their local farm shop. Viral videos on TikTok pick apart their facial features, some even claiming that the man in the video is a Prince William lookalike too.
Questioning everything from the height difference between the Wales’ (Kate and William are both very tall, with 5ft 9 Kate still six inches shorter than William) as well as their outfit choices (Kate’s off duty look was a simple leggings and hoody combination, paired with trainers and long socks, while William sported jeans and a baseball cap), commentators are picking apart the background of the video too, claiming that there are Christmas decorations hanging off some of the local stalls and thus concluding the video must’ve been taken in December (it’s wreaths and fairy lights by the way, classic cross-seasonal food market décor if you ask us).
Now, according to Google Trends, searches for Heidi Agan, 'Kate Middleton impersonator' and ‘Kate Middleton lookalike’ are through the roof – making up four of the top five search terms for the Princess. Of course, there is one way to quell these mounting concerns and silence the conspiracy theorists for good: go straight to the source. So, being the tenacious investigative journalists that we are, we spoke to Heidi ourselves – who also works regularly with Simon Watkinson, the Prince William lookalike similarly being embroiled in the conspiracy theories.
‘It wasn’t me at Windsor farm,’ she confirms. ‘And that is Prince William in the video. Obviously, we’ve studied them both in great detail as we have to for our job, and you can tell it is them.’
Heidi herself acknowledges that the conspiracy theories have ‘gone too far’ and finds the whole thing surreal. But given the nature of the theories picking apart every small detail of a picture or video, we take the time to address the claims around Kate’s height compared to Heidi’s.
‘I’m about six inches shorter than Kate, she’s supermodel tall and I was not blessed with that gene,’ Heidi says. ‘The Prince William that I work with, we’re quite well height-matched, so it works out well for us but unless you’ve seen them [the Wales’] in real life you won’t quite realise how tall they are.’
For those who truly believe it’s not Kate in the video, questions raised include whether or not Heidi and Simon staged the photo themselves, or TMZ paid them to – some even have an inkling that Heidi has a relationship with the Palace and would stand in for Kate Middleton if required. We put these ludicrous claims to Heidi, the answer to all of which is firm 'no;. It’s not Heidi and Simon in the video, they do not have any kind of relationship with the Palace, and they wouldn’t be hired to actually fake images of Kate and Will – the fact they’re lookalikes is always made explicitly clear.
The fact that the rumours around the farm-shop video still persist, despite Heidi's flat-out denial show the extent to which speculation about the Princess of Wales' health and whereabouts really have spiralled out of control.
‘We’ve never had media outlets book us for paparazzi shots that are meant to be put out as real,’ Heidi explains. ‘Because we’re lookalikes, we do have to let people know that, so the initial shock is there but then everybody understands that we’re lookalikes. We do videos and things like that, but nothing that is meant to go across serious or put out as this is officially them. There’s always a disclaimer and we would want that as well in order to be respectful to the royal family.’
As far as things as serious as working for the Palace, it's nothing like that at all.
Heidi Agan
They’ve never met any royals either, but Heidi says the royal family do know of their work. ‘We’ve heard that the Palace have heard of us and that they think it’s good, which is what it’s meant to be,’ she says. ‘We’re not lookalikes to be disrespectful, we’re just paid actors for corporate events, and it’s meant to bring a little bit of humour. As far as things as serious as working for the Palace, it’s nothing like that at all.’
In terms of her work, Heidi says she’s mostly booked for events, adverts and meet and greets. ‘A lot of people come to us directly or we get booked through agents and it’s worldwide,’ she explains. ‘Our level or work mirrors how busy the royals are, so at the moment this has caused quite a stir because Kate has been “missing” for so long but usually it’s things like the Coronation, the King’s birthday, the birth of royal children. The Olympics too will generate a lot of interest and work, so the busier they are the busier we are.’
Of course, the last few weeks have been particularly wild. After TMZ published the video, Heidi says her phone blew up overnight and she’s since been inundated online with people asking her ‘Is this you?’ - to which she can’t help but laugh.
‘It’s obvious it’s not me! It’s flattering because it means I do look like her, but it’s a lot of people going back and forth,’ Heidi says. ‘Personally, I think it’s gone too far now, I very much take the stance of unless something has been announced by Kensington Palace everything else is untrue. It’s like watching some weird movie of all this stuff unfolding, there’s one girl on TikTok up to part 25 of “Where is Kate Middleton?”. I find it quite amusing because I think she’s fine, she’s just had an operation and she’s recovering, but watching it all unfold has been crazy really. It started out so small and now it’s turned huge.’
Georgia Aspinall is Features Editor at Grazia UK. An award-winning writer, she covers women's interest stories across politics, health, dating, travel and pop culture.