Photos of Prince Harry and Prince William together at the coronation are AI-generated

A video circulating on Facebook appears to show photographs of Prince Harry and William embracing at King Charles III’s coronation.

But the photos are not real, and were created using artificial intelligence (AI) tools. 

The video, which has more than 2,700 shares and 78,000 likes, shows a slideshow of eight photos where the royals can be seen embracing and speaking in various different locations supposedly throughout the celebrations.

Overlaid text says: “Prince Harry and Prince williams meets again!! at King Charles Coronation[sic].”

However, the photos were generated by AI and were published before 6 May when the coronation took place. 

A reverse image search shows that the images were originally published in a blog post where the author, named ‘Jim the AI Whisperer’, explains how he created the images using the AI generator Midjourney to “imagine a heartfelt reconciliation between the two brothers”. 

The blog, which was published on 29 April, says: “The AI-generated artwork is a heartfelt tribute to the brotherly bond that Harry and William once shared, and hope for a possible reconciliation.”

Prince Harry is reported to have left the celebrations after the coronation service finished at Westminster Abbey, and sat two rows away from his brother. He was reportedly not invited to appear on the balcony at Buckingham Palace after the coronation service and Full Fact could find no images of the brothers interacting at the event.

Full Fact has written before about other posts containing AI images, such as a viral image of Pope Francis wearing a puffer jacket. This type of artificially generated content can be very convincing and spread quickly online—we have also written a guide on how to spot it. 

Image courtesy of DoD News