Who is Heidi Agan, the UK's 'most realistic' Kate Middleton lookalike?

The world’s obsession with Kate Middleton’s whereabouts seems to be strengthening by the day, with her latest “outing” only serving to stoke the wild conspiracy theories.

Footage of her alleged jaunt to a Windsor farm shop over the weekend was met with accusations that the woman pictured wasn’t Kate but merely a lookalike.

The suggestion has left people turning to the Princess of Wales’s self-styled doppelganger Heidi Agan, who has made headlines over recent years thanks to her resemblance to the future queen.

So who is “the UK’s most realistic Kate Middleton lookalike” (as Agan brands herself on her website)? And has she played any part in this whole sorry affair?

How did Agan become a Kate lookalike?

Back in 2011, as the world prepared for Prince William’s marriage to his long-term girlfriend, Agan was making around £7 an hour working at her local Frankie & Benny’s restaurant.

“I was working a good six days a week to try and keep a roof over my head and my children's heads,” Agan, a single mother at the time, told Barcroft TV back in 2014.

However, she decided to rethink her career when customers kept badgering her about her resemblance to the soon-to-be princess.

“By February 2012, 10 months after the royal wedding, diners had begun asking for pictures with me and requesting that I served them,” she told The Sun.

“It got me thinking that there could be money in looking like Kate.”

Agan was able to quit her job as a waitress to work full-time as a lookalike(Heidi Agan)

The mum-of-two, from Northamptonshire, said she then contacted some agencies and “within a month I got my first job for Gatwick Airport to promote their customer service ahead of the London 2012 Olympics.”

Admitting that the whole experience was “nerve-racking”, she said it nonetheless paid off.

“I was getting so much work I decided to quit my waitressing job,” she said.

“It was a tough decision and I wasn’t sure how long it would last, but it’s paid off and I now earn between £500 and £3,000 per job, with around three jobs a week.”

What does being a professional Kate lookalike entail?

Since launching her career more than a decade ago, Agan has appeared on a number of prominent TV channels, including ABC News and the BBC, and in print media.

But the bulk of her time is spent mingling with guests at everything from corporate functions to village fetes.

"The variety of jobs is huge,” Agan told My Londonback in 2021. “No two days are the same – no two jobs are the same.

"Events like the Jubilee, the birth of Prince George, the Olympics, the Queen's 90th birthday - those generate a lot of work. Whenever there's a big royal event, there's always going to be some fun events for us as well."

The 43-year-old explained that she constantly has to hone her craft, meticulously studying Kate’s mannerisms and mimicking everything from her clothes to her hairstyle to the size of her baby bumps.

"I'm continually Googling pictures of the back of Kate's head so that we can see how high her layers go,” she told My London.

“You know, stuff like that, that I don't think normal people would care about. But to me, it's vital."

Stressing her commitment to the job, she added: "You only become as good as you want to be. I spend a lot of time looking at the mannerisms and what they do...that can set you apart from someone else."

Spot the difference: Agan (left) and Kate (right)(Heidi Agan/Getty Images)

Naturally, this all means that she’s regularly mistaken for the real deal.

"It can happen every day," Agan told Business Insiderin a 2017 interview. "You'll see people point at you and whisper, you'll see people come up to you excited and then you'll see the realisation change on their face [...] It's something that was strange at first but now it's just wonderful."

But, of course, this also comes with its downsides.

Internet trolls frequently lash out at her, either because they don’t like the royal family or because they find her unconvincing as a Princess of Wales double.

Others request photos of her feet to indulge Kate–related foot fetishes, according to the Telegraph.

"I've had death wishes [...] just all kinds of stuff. And you have to learn so quickly to become really thick skinned," she told Business Insider. "Everybody has an opinion and that's okay.”

So has Agan had any involvement in the recent Kate controversy?

The 43-year-old addressed the mystery in an Instagram post on Monday.

Sharing a picture of herself, beaming in a red polo shirt and black undersleeves, she wrote: “Found her. She’s fine. #whereiskatemiddleton #lookalike.”

The remarks invited comments from suspicious viewers, with one asking: “Ma’am was it you at the farmers market?!”

And another asking accusingly: “How much did you get [paid] for pretending to be her at the farmers market?”

The allegations are a perhaps inevitable upshot of the footage that emerged of “ Kate looking happy and relaxed” alongside her husband while out and about in Windsor.

The somewhat blurry clip, obtained by The Sun, purportedly shows the mother-of-three chatting to a cap-wearing William and carrying a large white bag.

The farm shop is a short drive from their Adelaide Cottage home in the grounds of Windsor Castle, where she is said to be recuperating from abdominal surgery.

Nelson Silva, who claims to have seen the couple, told TMZ: “I noticed a couple choosing loaves of bread and the woman turned her face and I felt like I had seen the face before. It was familiar.

“I went to my car and as they came out of the shop I just filmed them. I think they walked out through a gate out of the grounds. They just vanished and I didn’t see a car.

“Kate looked happy and relaxed. They look happy just to be able to go to a shop and mingle.

“Kate looked relieved, like it was a success going to a shop. It felt natural.”

Suffice it to say, not everyone is convinced that the whole scene was “natural” and, again, it is posing more questions than answers.

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