Kate, Duchess of Cambridge and Prince William are two of the most famous royals in the world, so it does not seem like they would need any help getting social media followers. However, some fans now believe that a number of their 11.4 million followers on Instagram might be fake.

Celebrities and influencers are known for buying followers here and there in order to increase their brand reputation for marketing purposes. Since Kate and Prince William to not rely on ads to make money, it can seem strange that royals would think about buying followers.

Nevertheless, fans believe that there are other reasons why the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge would get fake Instagram followers, so let’s take a look at what we know below.

The @bristololdvic1766 is the oldest continuously working theatre in the English speaking world — today The Duke and Duchess of Sussex toured the recently renovated facility, finding out more about the theatre’s unique history and links to the local community. Their Royal Highnesses also dropped in on a workshop attended by local school children, part of the Old Vic’s outreach programme. #RoyalVisitBristol

A post shared by Kensington Palace (@kensingtonroyal) on Feb 1, 2019 at 9:02am PST

Kate and Prince William’s account, @KensingtonRoyal, used to be shared with Meghan, Duchess of Sussex and Prince Harry. The Sussexes lived at Kensington Palace for some time after they got married in 2018, so it makes sense that the two couples would share this one account.

However, just a bit before Meghan and Prince Harry had their son Archie in 2019, they decided to move out of Kensington Palace. Additionally, they decided to set up their own communications office and charity foundation. This eventually led them to create their own Instagram account, called @SussexRoyal.

Go raibh míle maith agaibh, a chairde go léir in Éirinn Thank you to all the wonderful people we met in Ireland! Swipe to see a sample of some of the lovely letters we received during #RoyalVisitIreland thank you to everyone that took the time to write to The Duke and Duchess. Photo © Kensington Palace

A post shared by Kensington Palace (@kensingtonroyal) on Mar 5, 2020 at 11:23pm PST

Meghan and Prince Harry made a lot of headlines for how quickly it took their account to reach 1 million followers. At some point, a lot of fans even predicted that, with their growth rate and immense popularity, it would not take long before they had more followers than the Cambridges.

This prediction never came true. Instead, no matter how many followers Meghan and Prince Harry get, Kate and Prince William always seem to be ahead. Either that or the two accounts would sit at the same amount of followers for a while.

According to Cosmopolitan, this is actually really strange. The news outlet wrote: “Not even the Kardashians and Jenners have a follower count that close! Even twins Tia and Tamera Mowry and Cole and Dylan Sprouse have different amounts of followers.”

Because of this phenomenon, some fans believe Kate and Prince William’s social media team has been artificially inflating their follower count in order to maintain the illusion that they are not behind the Sussexes in any way.

There are always feud rumors surrounding the Cambridges and the Sussexes. When Meghan first joined the royal family, there were already news reports about how she and Kate were having trouble getting along.

Over time, some people believe that they might have gotten closer, but there are still a lot of conversations around the internet that pit both women against each other.

Meanwhile, Prince William and Prince Harry are said to be growing apart as well. While both princes have said that they still love and care for each other, it is clear that there is tension in the air whenever they are around each other.

However, this is no confirmation that the Cambridges and Sussexes think of each other as rivals. Even if they do not get along with each other, it does not mean that they are always trying to outdo everything the other team does.

As for why Kate and Prince William seem to have more fake followers on Instagram, Cosmopolitan pointed out that the Cambridges’ account could simply be promoted on Instagram more, which could end up attracting a higher number of bots to follow them. There is no real indication that they are buying followers.