15 Royal Family Conspiracy Theories That Will Rattle You

A video recently circulated showing Meghan Markle and Prince Harry in the audience of the Britain's Got Talent finale, in which the Duchess of Sussex does not blink or show facial expressions at all.

Some genealogy records state that Prince Charles is a descendant of 15th-century Romanian prince, Vlad the Impaler—the man who inspired Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel, Dracula. That would also make Princess Charlotte a vampire; this, at least, we cannot handle.

According to this conspiracy theory, as a child, young Lady Elizabeth fell ill and died while playing at her family’s lodge in Bisley, England, just hours before her father, King Henry VIII, was scheduled to pay a visit...

...Fearful that the King would behead them, the servants dressed a neighborhood boy as young Elizabeth herself. People say the boy grew up continuing the charade, and that Queen Elizabeth’s wardrobe and pledge to virginity during her reign were all tools to hide her true identity as a farm boy.

The rumor states that before Diana could marry Charles, the Queen ordered her to undergo fertility tests to verify that she could have children. During the tests, her eggs were fertilized and a doctor secretly stole the embryo and implanted it into his wife.

Some speculate that Prince Harry is actually the son of James Hewitt—Diana and James both admitted to having a five-year affair during Diana and Charles' marriage. James is a redhead, like Harry. Charles is not. Cosmopolitan placed parallel photos of Harry and James alongside each other and they do look a lot alike.

However, it seems like Harry gets his looks from Princess Diana's brother, Charles Spencer—pictured here with Diana.

Rumors about a sexual relationship between Queen Elizabeth and her childhood friend, Dudley, ran rampant around England during Elizabeth’s reign. Elizabeth apparently appointed Dudley as “master of the horse,” which meant they would have personal contact daily.

Mohamed al-Fayed—father of Dodi al-Fayed, Diana’s boyfriend at the time of her death—claims that Diana was pregnant with Dodi’s child. Mohamed al-Fayed is an Egyptian Muslim, and claims that the Windsors found that problematic, arranging Diana's death to cover up the pregnancy. That is another rather expensive conspiracy theory (see next slide).

Some theorists and gossip magazines claim that Kate must have used a surrogate, because she looked too good leaving the hospital to have just delivered a baby herself.

Some scholars claim Prince Albert Victor, grandson of Queen Victoria and son of King Edward VII, was "Jack the Ripper"—the anonymous and infamous serial killer who committed five murders in London in 1888.

Jack the Ripper's victims were often impoverished female prostitutes, and writers and researchers continue to investigate his identity. Some suspect Prince Albert Victor committed the murderers in sporadic, illness-induced bouts of violence.

A letter from Diana to former butler Paul Burrell apparently implies that Diana suspected her husband was planning to kill her—with an “accident in my car,” with “brake failure” and “serious head injury”—so that he could marry someone else. She wrote the letter ten months before she died in the Paris car crash.

Unlike most women at the time, Queen Elizabeth received a formal, extensive education, and some claim her insider understanding of royal life meant she could have written the plays credited to Shakespeare. There is little evidence for this, but it would be fantastic.