King Charles Death Rumors

About

King Charles Death Rumors refers to rumors and conjecture that King Charles III supposedly died on St. Patrick's Day in 2024. Rumors that flags in the United Kingdom are being flown at half-mast and that the BBC has been put on standby for a Royal announcement spread on TikTok and X / Twitter on March 17th, 2024, leading many to suspect that King Charles may have died. The King's cancer diagnosis played a role in fueling the conspiracy theories, as did the recent news cycles surrounding a supposedly missing Kate Middleton.

Origin

On March 17th, 2024, rumors that King Charles may be dead began to spread online. These rumors were compounded with news the Union flags were being flown at half-mast in the U.K. and that the BBC had been put on "standby" in anticipation of a Royal announcement.

The earliest known post alluding to the BBC being put on standby to await a royal announcement was a March 16th post on X^[1] by user @martin_youldon, who gathered over 1,000 likes in two days (seen below)

The earliest known post discussing the rumor that Union flags are flying at half-mast in the U.K., and linking it to King Charles's purported death was posted by X^[2] user @kimichkis on March 17th, 2024, gathering over 1,000 likes in a day (seen below).

Spread

TikTok users discussed the rumors on March 17th, 2024, as seen in a post by user @cady_bee^[3] in which she shares a theory that the BBC has been put on standby but is waiting until the weekend passes to drop a major announcement (about King Charles's death) to avoid overlap with the Irish holiday St. Patrick's Day. The post gathered over 600,000 plays and 85,000 likes in a day (seen below, left).

TikToker^[4] @zactivist also posted a video discussing the BBC being on standby on March 17th, theorizing that the "truth" about Kate Middleton's disappearance from the public might finally be revealed. The post gathered over 1 million plays and 27,000 likes in a day (seen below, right).

X users also shared their reactions to the rumors in mid-March 2024, as seen in a March 17th post by user @StorySorcery^[5] that read, "I need british mutuals to tell me what's going over there!!! are the flags at half mast? is there a bbc blackout? is it true that bbc told everyone to be on standby for a royal announcement?" that gathered over 12,000 likes in a day (seen below, left).

On March 18th, X^[6] user @jjoque posted an edit of Kate Middleton's edited family photo, writing, "Buckingham Palace just released this photo of King Charles he is certainly not dead; he is alive and well," and gathering over 9,000 likes in a day (seen below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References