Was Queen Elizabeth an alien?! These are the most surreal conspiracy theories about the British Royal Family...

The British Royal Family is probably the most famous family in the world. Although the members are known all over the globe and regularly meet and greet the public, the inner-workings of 'the firm' are secretive. Numerous absurd rumors have led to various hypotheses and theories, each one more far-fetched than the next. Read on to discover some of the strangest conspiracy theories about the royals...

Shortly before the Duke and Duchess of Sussex tied the knot in 2018, rumors emerged on social media that the wedding was a fake and, more surprisingly, that it was all a ploy by the US government to meddle in British politics.

Conspiracy theorist David Icke has claimed that the late British sovereign was an extra-terrestrial lizard capable of modifying her appearance.

Misogyny is also rife, as evidenced by the belief shared by some, that Queen Elizabeth I was actually a man. The fact that she had no offspring, and that her behaviour did not conform to male stereotypes, has undoubtedly contributed to such ordinariness.

A man named Robert Brown claimed years ago that he was the illegitimate son of Princess Margaret - the sister of Queen Elizabeth II - who died in 2002. According to an interview Brown gave to the Daily Telegraph, his birth was the result of an affair between the princess and her former boyfriend, RAF officer Peter Townsend, whom she never married.

The Globe published a bizarre story in 2014 claiming that Princess Diana and the now King Charles had a daughter through in vitro fertilisation, years before the arrival of their firstborn son William.

New Idea magazine once hinted that the then Prince Charles might be a vampire. In fact, the theory refers to his supposed kinship with Vlad the Impaler, who suffered from porphyria. Rumour aside, the truth is that the condition does not make one a vampire, but simply makes the skin more sensitive to the sun. Charles has confirmed that he is related to lad the Impaler, whom author Bram Stoker based his literary vampire Dracula on.

The aforementioned New Idea and also Closer magazine once reported that Kate Middleton, the current Princess of Wales, never became pregnant with her daughter Charlotte, but instead used a surrogate.

On this occasion, it was The Daily Beast that was encouraged to publish an unfounded rumour about the Duchess of Sussex, who was said to have opted for surrogacy for the birth of Archie.

Camilla, Queen Consort has been married to King Charles since 2005. Before she was wed to the British monarch, Camilla was married to Andrew Parker Bowles, who was Catholic, and their children were raised as Catholics. Camilla, however, is not Catholic, and her marriage to the Charles was made official in the Anglican church. Prior to the 2013 Succession to the Crown Act, the heir in line to the throne could take the crown if married to a Roman Catholic.

This rumour is frankly astonishing, and is much talked about on those tours of London that specialise in showing off the capital's darkest places. The theory claims that the notorious serial killer Jack 'The Ripper', whose identity was never really revealed, was none other than Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale, the grandson of Queen Victoria! Extensive research though has proven that Albert could not have been in London at the time of the murders.