A new Kate Middleton photo was “killed” by picture agencies over concerns it had been manipulated, while social media users have picked out multiple flaws in the image.
The Princess of Wales has not appeared publicly since Christmas Day and is not due back on public duties until after Easter.
The absence of any pictures of her led to wild social media conspiracies that Kensington Palace was hiding a major crisis.
Then, the palace released a photograph of Kate alongside her children Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis on Sunday to mark Mother’s Day in the U.K, which the palace said was taken by Prince William.
Kate was forced to acknowledge she edited the image in a post on X, formerly Twitter, on Monday: “Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing. I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused. I hope everyone celebrating had a very happy Mother’s Day. C”
Multiple flaws were picked up, affecting the appearances of Kate and her children, as well as the background of the image.
Joe Davies, founder of digital marketing agency FatJoe, ran Newsweek through some of the issues that he found: “This is potentially photoshop and not AI—but could be using photoshop AI generation.
Prince William/Kensington Palace
“In this image specifically the fingers are the issue. See the image of the child on the left [Prince Louis]. His fingers are unnaturally positioned.
“The background, step, is not complete or is uneven, the skirt on the child on the right [Princess Charlotte] doesn’t fall right. Kate’s left hand is blurry, but not the rest of the image.”
One of the most obvious tells in the image was the misalignment of Princess Charlotte’s sleeve on her left hand, the line of which appeared to be broken. And the line of her tights appears to suddenly blur around the knee.
There was another broken line across the back step immediately behind Prince Louis’ right leg and the concrete windowsill that he rests his right hand on appeared to be warped.
Prince William/Kensington Palace
The pattern on the right shoulder of Prince Louis’ knitted jumper does not properly line up and there is a hard line below Kate’s face where the zipper on her top suddenly goes from being in sharp focus to soft focus.
Some pointed out Kate’s right hand appears blurred where it meets Prince Louis’ jumper and the waist band of Princess Charlotte’s skirt appears to extend beyond her body on her right hip.
Kate was not wearing her wedding ring, the ankle of the boot on her left foot appeared to have a broken line and some felt her hair looked blurred.
Also, the wooden frame on the windows behind the Wales family looked distorted while some suggested Kate’s left cheek also looked distorted.
Asked whether Kensington Palace could survive the scandal with its reputation in tact, Davies replied: “No, I don’t think so.”
Prior to Kate’s post on X he said there would need to be a statement: “There’s going to have to be a very big statement or its complete mistrust forever really. If they can do this now, and they don’t apologize at a later stage, then how can anyone trust?”
The backlash against the palace was not confined to picture agencies, with television show Good Morning Britain holding a substantial discussion of the issue on Monday morning.
Regular commentator Kevin Maguire, associate editor of the Daily Mirror, said: “Somebody, whoever it was, has felt the need to get a box of tricks and try and change how they appear. It fuels the wider conspiracy theories which it was intended to halt.”
Susanna Reid, the show’s host, replied: “Because if they’ve manipulated Charlotte’s wrist and the tights on her knee then what else have they manipulated? That’s the question isn’t it?”
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.
Do you have a question about King Charles III, William and Kate, Meghan and Harry, or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email [email protected]. We’d love to hear from you.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.