Video claiming to show Meghan being arrested is AI

24 July 2025

What was claimed

A video shows the Duchess of Sussex being arrested.

Our verdict

False. This isn’t a real video, and this incident didn’t happen. It has been created with artificial intelligence (AI).

A video which claims to show the Duchess of Sussex being arrested has been created with artificial intelligence (AI).

The footage, which has over 280,000 views on Facebook, includes the caption: “Meghan Markle ARRESTED! Princess Anne Breaks Her Silence on Meghan.”

It appears to show a woman, who initially resembles the duchess, being restrained and led away by two police officers. Another clip playing alongside this in a split screen, appears to show Princess Anne seemingly watching and reacting to the arrest.

However, neither clip is real. They have both been created using AI tools.

AI-generated blue

How do we know this clip is AI?

There are a number of key clues that point to this footage being generated by AI.

Although at the beginning of the clips both Princess Anne and the Duchess of Sussex appear realistic, throughout the videos they become increasingly distorted.

The face of Meghan in particular morphs and melts throughout the last two seconds of the video, while her skin colour also changes.

Four seconds into the video, it appears as though she has two right hands which are holding onto the arm of Princess Anne. The limbs of both police officers also distort and glitch, and at one point an officer’s hands appear to merge with Meghan’s.

Writing on the uniform of the officers, which at first glance appears to say ‘police’, is actually nonsensical.

The left side of Princess Anne’s jawline also shifts unnaturally multiple times throughout the clip. It appears that the AI-generated video of her has been created using a real picture, as the opening frame of the footage matches a photograph taken in 2011. We have seen real photographs used as the basis for AI deepfakes such as these, often utilising ‘puppet master’ techniques.

The background in the side of the footage supposedly of Meghan also glitches substantially around the three second mark, with a vehicle directly behind her vanishing.

Despite these visual glitches, some people interacting with the post appear to believe it could be genuine.

The increasing spread of convincing AI videos of real people can make it harder to know whether what you are seeing on social media is real. We have written guides with advice on how to work out whether a video is AI, and have published a toolkit on how to better navigate content on the internet.

While the claim may seem obviously false to some people, it may not be as clear to other social media users. You can read more about our decision to fact check things some may find obvious here.

We could find no evidence of any such incident involving the Duchess of Sussex or Princess Anne being reported by credible news outlets.

We have previously fact checked other AI content created about the Royal Family, including other examples about the Duchess of Sussex and Princess Anne, as well as Princess Charlotte.

Often our first piece of advice in determining whether something is AI manipulated content is to be suspicious. Does the scenario seem realistic? Has it been reported by any trustworthy news sources? If videos supposedly show groundbreaking news that is not being reported elsewhere, it likely isn’t genuine.

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