Kate Middleton Car Photo Raises Fresh Questions

A Kate Middleton picture taken as she sat next to Prince William on the backseat of a car has raised fresh questions, despite being taken by news photographers.

The Princess of Wales had already been subject to weeks of wild claims when she apologized Monday for editing a family portrait that Kensington Palace sent out for Mother’s Day, on Sunday, March 10.

Four picture agencies killed the image due to numerous tell-tale signs it had been manipulated, sparking a reputational crisis for the palace.

In the aftermath, armchair investigators on social media have begun questioning not only that image but other Kate pictures too—often leaping to the wrong conclusion.

However, the fact some on social media would seek to question even news photography shows how Kate’s embarrassing admission, coupled with weeks of mystery around her health, has created an atmosphere in which trust has disintegrated.

And that in turn shows how far the palace would have to go to claw their way back to believability in the eyes of those promoting the conspiracies online.

On Monday, U.K. news outlets including The Sun and the Daily Mail published an image of Prince William, with Kate alongside him, leaving Windsor on his way to a royal engagement, the Commonwealth Day Service at Westminster Abbey.

Kate’s face was barely visible in the picture as she was turned away from the camera and in shadow.

Yet some on social media have suggested they believe that image could also have been manipulated—despite it not showing the princess clearly. One person shared the image on X, formerly Twitter, and suggested the colour of bricks on a wall behind the royal couple’s car didn’t match up. At the time of writing, the post had been viewed 14,000 times and received 76 likes.

The picture, to be clear, was not put out by Kensington Palace but was credited to two named, respected and well-known news photographers, Kelvin Bruce and Jim Bennett, and there is nothing to suggest the image was in any way doctored.

Some social media users also inferred conspiracy into the fact the British media boycotted a paparazzi picture of the princess in the front passenger seat of a car driven by her mother Carole Middleton last week, which was published by TMZ.

While on first glance the two circumstances may appear similar, they are fundamentally different.

Prince William was known to be attending Commonwealth Day on Monday, meaning photographers would have been expecting to see him depart from Windsor for London on his way to work.

The pictures were also captured on a day when there was a genuine news story about the couple, while the paparazzi picture the week before had captured the princess going about her private life in a context that had nothing to do with her working role.

That image was also not credited by TMZ to any named photographer but rather simply to the distribution service Backgrid.

Jack Royston is Newsweek‘s chief royal correspondent based in London. You can find him on X, formerly Twitter, at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek’s The Royals Facebook page.

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