Fact Check: Piers Morgan Did NOT Interview Barbara O'Neill About A Diabetes Remedy -- Fake Video

AI Voice-Over

Did Piers Morgan interview controversial wellness coach Barbara O'Neill about a "Diabetes Solution" on his program "Uncensored"? No, that's not true: The video circulating on social media is fabricated, using an AI voiceover to simulate a conversation between Morgan and O'Neill. The Hive Moderation detection tool determined that the video's audio track was 100 percent likely to be AI. A search of Morgan's "Uncensored" YouTube channel did not return any results with O'Neill's name.

The claim appeared in a video (archived here) published by the verified page of Cameron Payne on April 28, 2024. The post had an extensive caption which read:

Find more 👉

Cure your diabetes problems with Dr. Barbara O'Neill's revolutionary treatment!

If you have three or more of the following symptoms: Unexplained fatigue Excessive thirst Blurred vision Frequent, excessive urination Unexplained weight loss Pain, burning, numbness, and tingling in your hands, feet, arms, and legs Slow-healing wounds, cuts, ulcers, and recurring infections Dry mouth, itchy skin Irritability, anxiety, and nervousness Cold hands and feet Difficulty concentrating, it's time to consider Dr. Barbara O'Neill's Diabetes Solution. This comprehensive approach aims to: Prevent dangerous diabetes-related complications in critical organs such as the heart and kidneys. Completely relieve symptoms such as blurred vision, numbness of limbs, increased urination at night, etc. Supports diabetes management and helps maintain stable blood sugar levels. Features of the Diabetes Control Plan include: Improve cardiovascular health Avoid diabetes-related complications Regulate blood sugar levels to stay within a safe range of 4.0 to 5.4 mmol/L Provide important nutrients to boost immunity.

This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:

(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Mon Apr 29 15:07:43 2024 UTC)

This deceptive ad involves the names of three well-known people and Lead Stories has found no evidence that any of them -- Piers Morgan, Barbara O'Neill or Cameron Payne -- has anything to do with the ad, the production of this fake video, or whatever product or scheme may be behind this ad. The scope of this fact check does not extend to the efficacy of this diabetes remedy.

The video consists of two frames, in the standard format of Morgan's show -- he is on the left and Barbara O'Neill is on the right, as if by remote feed. They appear to exchange haltingly cordial greetings. When the voice resembling Morgan invites her to share, a voice resembling O'Neill gives a vague promotion (at the 0:16-mark):

My remedy is based on natural ingredients that help restore insulin sensitivity and pancreatic function. It not only alleviates diabetes symptoms but also helps stabilize blood sugar levels without side effects and addresses the root cause of the disease.

Lead Stories found no record of an interview with O'Neill on the program. Nothing appears in the episode list on the IMDb page of "Piers Morgan Uncensored," nor does a search of the YouTube channel (pictured below) yield any results.

(Image source: YouTube screenshot taken on Mon Apr 29 17:51:17 2024 UTC)

Lead Stories then turned to the Hive Moderation platform which has tools to detect AI-generated text, images and audio. The tool uses an audio sample which must be less than 30 seconds long. Lead Stories uploaded the 1:18 minute-long video from Facebook and cut it down to a 26-second-long sample. In just a few seconds Hive's tool determined with 100 percent confidence that the audio track of the clip was AI-generated. This conversation between Morgan and O'Neill is fabricated.

(Image source: hivemoderation.com screenshot taken on Mon Apr 29 18:15:48 2024 UTC)

The Facebook post contains a "Learn more" link to health-monitoring-today.com, but when clicked, this link goes to a non-functional, Finnish language, fashion accessories website called Puf (copycat archived here & real Puf website archived here). This fake website is being used by health-monitoring-today.com to hide what is really going on from search engines and automated moderating tools. This tactic is called cloaking. Lead Stories was unable to access the part of the site where the diabetes remedy mentioned in the pitch was offered for sale.

The page transparency report for the Cameron Payne Facebook page showed that it was running ads, and also that the page has an unusually large number of page managers from 20 different countries. The Meta ad library shows that at the time of writing, the page was running several ads (pictured below). Among the Barbara O'Neill ads are additional promotions purportedly featuring Dr. Ben Carson and Dr. Mehmet Oz. The ads also give links to several additional websites: healthstrategieslearn.com, health-checkup-today.com and health-surveillance-today.com. When we clicked these links we were directed to more fake cloaking pages.

(Image source: Meta ad library screenshot taken on Mon Apr 29 18:55:50 2024 UTC)

Lead Stories reached out to Cameron Payne's sports management agency and will update this article if we receive a reply.

Additional Lead Stories fact checks regarding claims made by or about Barbara O'Neill can be found here.