John Oliver Rags On Kate Middleton’s PhotoShop Abilities On ‘Last Week Tonight’: “A Certain Someone’s Adobe Free Trial Expired In A Pretty Public Manner”

By Alex Vena
Published March 19, 2024, 12:26 p.m. ET

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John Oliver had to take another moment to rag on Kate Middleton, this time on his own turf.

After delving into conspiracies regarding the Princess of Wales’ doctored family photo on last Tuesday’s (March 12) episode of Watch What Happens Live, Oliver couldn’t resist joking about Middleton once more on Sunday night’s (March 17) installment of Last Week Tonight, per The Daily Beast.

“A certain someone’s Adobe free trial expired in a pretty public manner,” he teased.

The joke stemmed from a picture posted on Kate and Prince William‘s Instagram page on Mother’s Day in the U.K. (March 10), which has since been revealed to be altered and has even been labeled as such on Instagram, per People. This had been the first instance that the public heard from Middleton since her “planned abdominal surgery” that took place in January.

Middleton had issued an apology in a statement online the following day that only spurred further chatter, claiming, “Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing.”

As for Oliver’s WWHL appearance last week, he chimed in on the royal ruckus after host Andy Cohen asked, “What the fuck is going on with Kate Middleton?”

Oliver claimed that in terms of the intense speculation as to how Middleton is doing, he initially “was out.”

“I thought, let’s all just ignore this,” he shared. “We’ve moved on — until this PhotoShop thing. It feels like you’re almost handling it badly in an impressive way, at this point.”

Cohen echoed his confusion, asking Oliver, “Because isn’t their motto, ‘never complain, never explain?’ And they had her explaining on Twitter?”

Oliver replied, “Yes, there’s a non-zero chance she died 18 months ago. They might be Weekend at Bernie’s–ing this situation.”

While he highlighted that he’s “not saying it happened,” he reiterated that he’s “saying it’s non-zero until proven otherwise.”

“Until you see her with a copy of today’s newspaper,” he added.

Oliver is certainly not the only TV personality to weigh in on the news. The View‘s Hot Topics Table debated whether or not Middleton’s statement was sincere. After learning that William was credited with taking the now-infamous picture, Sunny Hostin asked, “They don’t have money for a royal photographer?”

Since the scandal, another Royal Family photograph — this one featuring the late Queen Elizabeth II, her grandchildren, and her great-grandchildren — has been deemed “digitally altered” by Getty Images, per Forbes.

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver airs Sundays at 11 p.m. ET and is available to stream on Max.