Fake Kate Middleton is Fake Pregnant
Proving an intense devotion to her craft, Kate Middleton impersonator Heidi Agan has purchased a series of fake baby bumps so she can accurately portray the Duchess of Cambridge throughout her pregnancy.
Kate Middleton Debuts Royal Baby Bump
Agan, a former waitress, is already the single mother of two, but her responsibilities as a royal lookalike call for her to wear a prosthetic baby bump. “As Kate grows, I will too—to be authentic I thought it was important,” Agan tells BBC News.
Though Agan didn't provide any dollar figures, the average run-of-the-mill fake baby bump made from silicone costs upwards of $600, and can be found in the dark corners of the online retail industry. Agan has had several sizes custom-made so she can portray the Duchess at all stages of her pregnancy. It hasn’t been an easy task, as Kate, now five months pregnant, has yet to make the transition into maternity wear.
"It's difficult at the moment as she's not big enough yet to change her entire wardrobe so it's difficult to see how she's going to dress it,” Agan told the BBC.
These are the kind of on-the-job issues Agan never would have imagined a few years back. In 2009, she was a waitress at a burger joint in Northamptonshire, who happened to look a lot like the girlfriend of Prince William. Then Kate and Will got engaged and Agan decided to make the career move from waitress to celebrity impersonator. She does bear an uncanny resemblance to the Duchess, with the same long brown curls, blue eyes, and smile—and the two are nearly the same age: Kate is 31, Agan is 32.
She embarked on her new career by purchasing the blue Issa dress Kate wore for her engagement announcement in November 2010 and then purchased a $450 dollar copy of the Alexander McQueen evening gown the Duchess wore shortly thereafter. Agan tells the BBC is she constantly monitoring the news for information about Kate and working to copy her mannerisms.
Now Agan can afford the expense of being “the UK’s most realistic Kate Middleton lookalike,” as she says on her website. She makes nearly $1,000 dollars a day masquerading as Kate Middleton, by attending charity events and making regular television and radio appearances. In October 2012 she appeared on "Good Morning America" and Kate Couric’s talk show accompanied by Prince William lookalike Tyler Brasfield.
It’s a role that Agan takes very seriously, not only in person but online. Agan has been keeping fans in the loop with social media updates about her fake bump. "The 'bump' and I had a great time filming outside today. But it was cold outside, brrr," she tweeted earlier this month, along with a retweet of a photo with her fake bump. On March 5, she tweeted about acquiring the prosthetic tummy, "picked up my 'baby bump' today. How strange :)."
It may be strange but it's a living, and a lot more lucrative than her former gig pushing burgers for $9 an hour. "It's just been incredible and I feel so blessed with it and without the support of my family I just couldn't do it," Agan, who has an 11-year-old and four-year-old, said. "Appearing as Kate has given me the opportunity to spend more time with my own children than if I was doing my waitressing job and that's priceless."
Related links:
Royal Baby Mania Begins with Questions on Name, Title, and Succession
Kate Middleton: Royal Pregnancy Mysteries Solved
Kate Middleton’s Uncle Shares Private Family Details in HELLO Interview