Did Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy buy the Highgrove mansion from the United Kingdom's King Charles III? No, that's not true: A representative of Grant Harrold, a former royal butler who was cited as the main source in an online article making the claim, told Lead Stories that the claim is "completely false." Lead Stories found several signs pointing to AI-generated input and a coordinated campaign to amplify this false claim, backed by Russian state TV and the Russian Embassy in South Africa.
The story appeared in an article (archived here) on the London Crier website where it was published on April 1, 2024, under the title:
Zelenskyy Acquires Highgrove House, Former
Residence of King Charles for £20Million
This is what it looked like at the time of writing:
(Source: London Crier screenshot taken on Mon Apr 8 14:59:55 2024 UTC)
No property records
Highgrove House, located within a 2-hour drive from London, is one of the real royal residences, but the speculations about its sale to Zelenskyy are not grounded in facts.
Acquired from a son of former Tory Prime Minister Harold Macmillan in 1980, Highgrove House became (archived here) the residence of the Prince of Wales that year. At the time, it was one of the titles of King Charles III.
When he became the king, his former title of the Prince of Wales was transferred (archived here) to his son William in September 2022. So did a property associated with this title, Highgrove House, as public records available for a fee on the UK land registry website (archived here) show:
(Source: UK land registry screenshot taken on Thu Apr 11 18:06:45 2024 UTC)
As of this writing, Prince William was registered as a sole owner of Highgrove House:
(Source: UK land registry screenshot taken on Thu Apr 11 18:04:50 2024 UTC)
Publicly available property information accessible on the same government website without registration or fees does not show any recent sales:
(Source: UK's land registry screenshot taken on Thu Apr 11 16:59:49 2024 UTC)
In an email sent to Lead Stories on April 10, 2024, the UK land registry added:
There is a leasehold title (GR457234) in the name of a company, 'Highgrove Nominees Limited', since August 2021.
The company mentioned in the registry's response is not affiliated with the Ukrainian president. "Highgrove Nominees Limited" is registered at Buckingham Palace (archived here) for "operating of own or leased real estate", and King Charles III is listed (archived here) as a person with "significant control" in the respective documentation.
Fake quote
The London Crier's article was based on a video (archived here) republished from YouTube where it had been originally uploaded on April 1, 2024. That clip claimed that the former royal butler Grant Harrold (archived here) confirmed that Zelenskyy bought the mansion, though the quote attributed to him didn't mention the Ukrainian president at all:
(Source: London Crier screenshot taken on Mon Apr 8 16:21:52 2024 UTC)
Harrold's representative Katie Storey told Lead Stories via email on April 8, 2024, that he never said anything about the purported sale:
No interview took place, this story is completely false. Grant hasn't provided any comment on this.
A search for key terms "Grant Harrold" and "Highgrove" across the websites indexed by Google News did not show any credible reporting (archived here) to support the claim that Harrold had talked to the press about sale of Highgrove.
AI-generated input
According to DeepFake-O-Meter (archived here), a tool maintained by the University of Buffalo (archived here), the video from YouTube republished by London Crier utilized AI-generated voice-over: Four out of five measuring models showed that it was unlikely to have been narrated by a human.
(Source: Deepfake - O - Meter screenshot taken on Mon Apr 8 16:54:32 2024 UTC)
The video featured a real estate professional named "Sam Murphy" whose face briefly appeared in the bottom left corner of the screen, but Lead Stories found no confirmation that this person actually exists.
The description of his channel created in February 2024 does not contain any links to professional websites, and all three videos posted by "Sam Murphy" featured different voices, generating a number of views that dramatically exceeded the number of the account's followers:
(Source: YouTube screenshot taken on Mon Apr 8 18:45:43 2024 UTC)
The photo of "Sam Murphy" was unusually blurry and low-quality for a professional headshot, and a Google search (archived here) for a person of this name working in the real estate industry across UK-based websites did not show anyone looking remotely similar to the supposed channel's creator.
About the London Crier
Although London Crier's bottom footer claimed that the outlet's history goes back to 1863, modern-day records reveal that this website was registered roughly a week before (archived here) publishing the claim about the Highgrove mansion.
Contrary to the practice followed by credible media outlets, it doesn't have an About section and does not disclose (archived here) information about its owners or editorial team elsewhere.
A click on the top menu led to the page showing the information about the software, not the website:
(Source: London Crier screenshot taken on Mon Apr 8 20:17:08 2024 UTC)
Furthermore, London Crier's bylines are more consistent with internet handles than real people's names. For example, the article in question was published by "admin" (archived here), a writer's profile that lacked both a picture and a description of professional expertise.
According to Hive Moderation (archived here), London Crier's logo is an AI-generated product as well as the narrator's voice in the video on YouTube where the claim originated:
(Source: Hive Moderation screenshot taken on Mon Apr 8 17:54:07 2024 UTC)
Signs of a coordinated campaign
On April 4, 2024, a report citing the London Crier described as a "British" outlet was aired by the Russian state-controlled Channel One (archived here.) On the next day, the Russian Embassy in South Africa promoted the story on X, also referencing the London Crier:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Mon Apr 8 20:43:06 2024 UTC)
Had there been real evidence that such a transfer of property actually taken place, well-established media outlets would have covered it. But a search for "Highgrove House" on Google News (archived here) shows recent fact checks debunking this claim.
Yet, the rumor simultaneously spread on X, formerly known as Twitter, across many languages, including Polish (archived here), Dutch (archived here), Italian (archived here) and Chinese (archived here.)
Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, unsubstantiated claims about the purportedly luxurious lifestyle of the first Ukrainian couple have recurred. For instance, Lead Stories wrote that Zelenskyy didn't purchase such assets as a $20 million mansion in Florida or two yachts worth $75 million and that his wife did not spend over $1.1 million on Cartier jewelry.
Other Lead Stories fact checks about the war in Ukraine can be found here.
