The royal family finally shared the first photo of Kate Middleton after she’s been out of the public eye for nearly three months, but it just ended up causing even more controversy in the process. After the photo was killed by several photo agencies just hours after it was posted on Sunday, Kate is apologizing for the confusion personally. But now, it seems like her explanation might have only made the situation worse.
The latest controversy began to unravel on Sunday.
View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Prince and Princess of Wales (@princeandprincessofwales)
In honor of it being Mother’s Day in the United Kingdom, Kate shared a photo of herself posing with all three of her children on the official Instagram account she shares with Prince William.
“Thank you for your kind wishes and continued support over the last two months. Wishing everyone a Happy Mother’s Day,” she wrote, dating the photo 2024 and giving Will the credit for snapping the pic.
People immediately started pointing out inconsistencies in the photo.
I wasn’t in on this whole conspiracy about Kate Middleton missing and the royals covering it up until they dropped this obviously fake photo today to appease public concern. I do photography, and work with post processing/editing a lot … here are just a few unexplainable issues pic.twitter.com/O0NBUpIYru — Jon | Mark (@NerdyTeacher_) March 10, 2024
Social media was abuzz on Sunday as people began to analyze the photo, pointing out what appeared to be edited.
The sleeve of Princess Charlotte’s sweater didn’t match up with her wrist, for one — and the list only seemed to get longer as people had more time to find new issues.
The photo was pulled by several large agencies.
Upon further examination, several photo agencies — including Reuters, the AP, and Getty Images — retracted the photo because it became clear that it had been digitally altered.
“At closer inspection it appears that the source has manipulated the image. No replacement photo will be sent,” read a statement from the AP.
On Monday, Kate apologized for the ‘confusion’ over the photo.
princeandprincessofwales/Instagram Stories
“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,” she wrote in a statement shared on both Instagram and X (formerly Twitter).
Her explanation hasn’t done much to quell the rumors.
The way to close everything down would be to release the original photo on which Kate decided to “experiment with editing”. That’s very unlikely, mind you … https://t.co/AaEb4Kow8n — Chris Ship (@chrisshipitv) March 11, 2024
Without the palace releasing the original, unedited family photo, people are finding it hard to take Kate at her word — or even to believe that the apology actually came from her in the first place.
Not much is going to keep those conspiracy theories at bay at this point, so hopefully Kate is able to return to royal duties soon and put them all to rest.
