Kate Middleton Breaks Silence Over Photoshop Fail

Kate Middleton apologized for editing a family portrait of herself with her children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, in a post on social media.

Wild speculation had been mounting on X, formerly Twitter, that the Princess of Wales was "missing," when Kensington Palace released a portrait for Mother's Day. The image showed Kate with her arms around Louis and Charlotte, while a smiling George had his arms around his mother.

However, four picture agencies, including the Associated Press and Reuters, pulled the picture on Sunday night over concerns it had been "manipulated."

Kate wrote on X: "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."

Among the concerns, social media users flagged the misalignment of Princess Charlotte's sleeve, distortion in the step behind Prince Louis' leg, a sudden blurring in Charlotte's tights around the knee, the fact the children had their fingers crossed and the fact Kate wasn't wearing her wedding ring.

A Kensington Palace press release promoting the image read: "A new picture of The Princess of Wales, Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis was posted on our social media channels today to mark Mother's Day. The image was taken in Windsor earlier this week by the Prince of Wales."

The photo fail fanned the flames of the wild conspiracy theories on social media, with multiple posts being viewed more than a million times.

Some, like left wing British journalist Owen Jones, said the saga had newly convinced them to join the conspiracy theorists.

In a post viewed 1.8 million times, he wrote: "Oh wow. Ok I am now fully on board the Kate Middleton truther train."

The backlash should have been all too predictable for the palace after a paparazzi image of Kate was pawed over by armchair investigators for any signs it had been faked.

Some even ran the long lens picture through an AI photo editing tool in an attempt to make it less grainy, before claiming the newly touched up version looked more like Kate's sister, Pippa Matthews.

While there is little concrete evidence to support that theory, it's a clear indication that any image of the princess will be examined in detail by those pushing the narrative that the palace has something to hide.

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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