EXCLUSIVE Meghan Markle's twerking video backfires: Duchess deliberately released clip to debunk claims she had fake baby bump - but has instead reignited conspiracy theories over her pregnancy, expert claims

Daily Mail​

a day ago

Meghan Markle may have deliberately released the video of her twerking with Prince Harry before giving birth to Lilibet to celebrate her daughter and also shut up conspiracy theorists - but it backfired, a leading British academic suggested today.
Trolls have weaponised the film to spread wild and groundless speculation that the Duchess of Sussex wasn't pregnant at all and was wearing a 'moonbump'.
A group of Twitter critics of the Sussexes have even made the extraordinary claim that the dancing video was faked and made on a film set - or could be AI-generated.
Sander van der Linden, professor of social psychology at the University of Cambridge, has said that the video may have been, in part, an attempt by Meghan to debunk baseless claims that have lingered in the dark corners of the web for years.
But he warned: 'In an age where all videos are suspect in terms of being AI-manipulated, it creates an extra cloud of confusion'.
Last month Meghan also shared an Instagram mood board posted to millions of followers to mark her seventh wedding anniversary to Harry. Many quickly noted that on it was an ultrasound picture - plus a photo of her bare pregnancy bump.
Prof van der Linden claims the idea Meghan wore a 'moonbump' and used a surrogate were cooked up in 2019, when she was pregnant with Archie, by a minority of people who 'hated' her.
'Generally, the more you try and refute a conspiracy theory, the more you fuel the idea that there's something to it', he said.
'It legitimises it – why would you respond unless it's something credible? There are some exceptions, where people can successfully dismiss conspiracy theories with humour and sarcasm, which is maybe what [Meghan] was attempting to do here'.
But the Cambridge professor says it it has not helped.
'It provides lots of material for people to cling onto, saying, "Look, she's wearing a prosthetic bump," or suggesting videos are deepfakes', van der Linden told the Telegraph.
The conspiracy frenzy began when Meghan posted a video of her and Prince Harry twerking in a hospital room in an attempt to induce Lilibet's birth.
The Duchess of Sussex shared the throwback clip on her Instagram to mark her daughter's fourth birthday saying 'there was only one thing left to do' when the princess was overdue and spicy food, walking and acupuncture failed to kickstart labour.
But conspiracy theorists pored over the film in order to make wild and even unhinged claims about her including that her pregnancy was faked.
Several claimed, without credible evidence, that her bump was too high or the wrong shape to be real. Others said her ability to dance that way at nine months meant she was either 'superhuman' or not pregnant at all.
Others have sought to back the incredible and baseless claim that the Sussexes used a surrogate by claiming the equipment in the background suggested it was not on a labour ward.
The video has sparked baseless claims on social media that it was faked
Trolls have also claimed that Meghan would have been wearing a gown and would have had her jewellery removed.
Others have questioned why she wasn't hooked up to an IV drip containing induction medication. One person claiming to be a nurse said that she should have had a canula in her hand. Another alleged that she would not have one fitted while in her own clothes.
Some Twitter users crudely marked the pictures with what they considered inaccuracies, using child-like scribbles.
MailOnline has asked a spokesman for the Sussexes to comment.
The video has sparked a social media frenzy.
In it, Harry is seen coming into view of the camera as Starrkeisha's viral Baby Mama song begins to play.
A heavily pregnant Meghan then starts twerking in front of a hospital bed before she gyrates around the room.
'Four years ago today, this also happened. Both of our children were a week past their due dates… so when spicy food, all that walking, and acupuncture didn't work - there was only one thing left to do!,' Meghan wrote on her Instagram.
The Baby Mama dance was a social media craze in 2018 with celebs Shay Mitchell, and Chloe and Lauryn Goodman all previously posting videos of themselves taking part in the trend.
Meghan had earlier shared two previously unseen photos of Lilibet with Harry. One of the pictures showed the Duke of Sussex holding his daughter's hand as they walked along a sandy road barefoot in the sunshine, while he held his shoes and a cap.
The other image was of Harry holding Lilibet as a baby while they looked at each other. Meghan wrote in a post accompanying the pictures: 'The sweetest bond to watch unfold. Daddy's little girl and favorite adventurer. Happy birthday Lili!'
The post was made at 7.40am California time (3.40pm UK), just under eight hours after Meghan earlier posted two other intimate family photos of her with Lilibet.
In that post, the Duchess shared a black-and-white snap of herself cuddling Lili, who was sat on her lap, with the pair both sporting windswept hair, seemingly on a boat.
The second image in the first post showed Meghan tenderly cradling newborn Lilibet as she enjoyed skin-to-skin time with the new addition to her family in 2021.
Meghan wrote in the first post: 'Happy birthday to our beautiful girl! Four years ago today she came into our lives - and each day is brighter and better because of it.
'Thanks to all of those sending love and celebrating her special day!'
The duchess usually only shares photos of her daughter pictured from behind to protect her privacy.
But in the more recent photo, Lili's eyes and the top half of her face could be seen, with her nose and mouth and the rest of her face covered by Meghan's arms as she hugged the princess.
Lili - the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's youngest child - was born on June 4 2021 and was named Lilibet Diana Mountbatten-Windsor.
She only became entitled to be a princess when her grandfather the King acceded to the throne, because of rules set out by King George V in 1917.
Harry and Meghan started using prince and princess for Archie and Lili after the princess's christening in 2023, following correspondence with Charles about the matter.
Yesterday, Meghan expressed her dream of launching a future business with Lili as she chatted to Beyonce's mother Tina Knowles on her podcast.
'I wonder if one day I'll be in business with Lili and we'll be building something,' the duchess said, with Knowles adding: 'That's the best.'
Last week, the Duchess shared a clip of her and her daughter beekeeping in matching protective suits, writing: 'Harvesting honey with my little honey. (Like mother, like daughter; she's even wearing my gloves).'
Lilibet is named after her great-grandmother Queen Elizabeth II.
Princess Elizabeth had difficultly pronouncing her own name as a toddler and her grandfather George V would affectionately call her Lilibet, imitating her own attempts to say Elizabeth.
The sweet nickname stuck and she became known as Lilibet to her family from then on.
But the late Queen was reportedly 'as angry as I'd ever seen her ' after Harry and Meghan claimed they had her blessing to use the name for their daughter Lilibet, a royal aide said.
Royal author Robert Hardman, in his biography of the King, told how a member of staff recounted Elizabeth II's fury following Harry and Meghan's announcement in 2021 over the use of her childhood family nickname.
The BBC later reported a Palace source said the Queen was not asked by the Sussexes whether they could use Lilibet.
But the Sussexes' lawyers fired off legal letters to the broadcaster and other publishers, saying the claim was false and defamatory.
A spokesperson for Harry and Meghan insisted at the time that the duke spoke to his grandmother in advance and would not have used the name had the monarch not been supportive.
Hardman wrote however: 'One privately recalled that Elizabeth II had been 'as angry as I'd ever seen her' in 2021 after the Sussexes announced that she had given them her blessing to call their baby daughter 'Lilibet', the Queen's childhood nickname.'