On Sunday morning, the Prince and Princess of Wales shared a Mother’s Day picture purportedly taken by Prince William. The photo featured the Princess alongside her three children – Princess Charlotte, Prince Louis, and Prince George.
The image held significance as it marked the first official appearance of Catherine since her abdominal surgery in January. Initially appearing natural, concerns arose over the next 24 hours leading major media agencies like Getty Images, AFP, Reuters, Associated Press, and PA Media to retract the image citing “manipulation” concerns, particularly regarding Princess Charlotte’s hand alignment.
In a subsequent statement on Monday morning, the Princess of Wales acknowledged “editing” the photo herself and apologised for any confusion it caused. Despite potential innocent intentions, the incident has raised doubts about the public’s trust in the Royal Family’s disclosures.
Adding to the scrutiny, another image of Kate Middleton has surfaced, stirring speculation of possible manipulation. In this photo, Middleton is depicted as a passenger in a car passing by a brick wall. Observers noted disparities between the bricks visible through the car windows and those above the car.
One individual took to social media, expressing disbelief: “Yall!? Has no one else noticed that the most recent photo of #KateMiddleton in the car… the bricks in the car windows, don’t appear to match the bricks outside the car… Is this another photoshopped picture… can anyone find the original they clipped it from?” The post garnered nearly 10,000 likes within twelve hours.
Further comparisons ensued, with one person pointing out similarities to a 2016 photo of Middleton: “Ok I went down the fashion rabbit hole. This is very similar to Kate’s 2016 Somme hair style and hat. Play with the colouring and you can clearly see what looks like a bow outline. Looks like they blurred out her big round earring as well.”
Another speculated that the image might be from Christmas, stating: “They used a Christmas day photo. They erased her earring, her hat brim can clearly be seen, as can the top be seen obscuring the rectangle in the interior of the car… then they added some noise to make it harder to discern the edits… they are really bad at this!!!”
