Former royal butler Grant Harrold apologises after being fooled by fake AI image of Prince William and Kate Middleton

A suspected AI-generated photo of the Prince and Princess of Walesallegedly taken when they were university students, has fooled a former royal aide.

Grant Harold, who used to work as a butler King Charles between 2004 and 2011 in Highgrove, said he “really mistook” the photo for the real thing.

It was shared with his 519,000 followers on Instagram on Saturday and it appears this is visible Prince William and Catherine in 2004, when they were dating.

Both are wearing blue jeans and white shirts and Catherine is sitting on William’s lap with her arms wrapped around him.

Harrol initially captioned the photo as follows: “This beautiful photo of the Prince and Princess of Wales was taken when I first met them in 2004. A true royal love story.”

While working for the current king, Harrol met Prince William and Catherine many times and was there to witness the beginning of their romance. He also worked when the couple had one romantic reunion dinner on Valentine’s Day in Highgrove in 2008, almost a year after their brief breakup.

But his followers were quick to point out that the image appeared to be AI.

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Based on his stories earlier this week, Harrol came back into the picture and admitted he was duped by it.

“It has come to my attention that the authenticity of a recent image I shared is being questioned as being AI,” Harrold wrote.

“I love sharing my experiences and memories of working with the Royal Family, and I aim to ensure my content reflects the wonderful years I spent as part of the household.

“I have not reproduced or owned the image of William and Kate that I posted. I always try to do my due diligence before sharing posts. To me, all I saw in this image was a young William and Kate who reminded me so much of what they were like when I first had the pleasure of working for them.

“I really thought this was an authentic image of the couple. When I saw it, I laughed and I wanted to share this joy with you.

“While I may be adept at distinguishing between my dinner knife and my butter knife, AI, as I’m sure you all agree, can be harder to detect.

“Going forward, I will be more careful about the content I choose to share with my followers and will try to ensure that my platform remains an authentic and positive space that celebrates the Royal Family.”

The photo remains on Harrol’s Instagram grid and has not been deleted.

The use of AI-generated images is widespread on social media, with users urged to be careful about the content they post or share.

The issue was the focus of a recent episode of Royal briefingthe royal vodcast from nine.com.au, ahead Prince George is going to high school in September.

“All this AI content, these royals are going to have to live in a world where you don’t know what’s real and what’s fake,” nine.com.au entertainment editor Nicole Douglas said.

“You don’t know who to believe, who to trust.”

Royal reporter Natalie Oliveri pointed out a recent example of this AI-generated images of Princess Elisabeth of Belgium and another young royal family, sparking rumors of a romance that was quickly ended by the palace.

“She actually had to come out and deny that she was dating this person from another royal family because there were AI-generated photos of them all over social media.”

Watch the full episode here