Front page news Monday morning in London—the first official photograph
of the Princess of Wales since her abdominal surgery in January.
Kate Middleton, celebrating Mother's Day in the UK on Sunday by posting the
pic to social media—and at first glance, it's a sweet snapshot,
showing Kate smiling, surrounded by her three laughing children.
"The point of this picture was very clearly designed to send a message to the world:
'Yes, she's here. Yes, she's recovering well.'"
In the caption, a "message to the world" from the recuperating royal:
"Thank you for your kind wishes and continued support over the last two months."
But now, Kate—last seen performing her royal duties on Christmas Day—is apologizing after
several major news agencies withdrew the photograph, saying it had been manipulated.
Close inspection reveals a few botched edits—most notably,
Princess Charlotte's disappearing sweater. Another damning detail? Kate not wearing her wedding ring.
"Bad PR move. If you're trying to quell a load
of rumors—Mother's Day with your three kids—have your wedding ring on, love!"
These edits add up to a "doctored" image that prompted the Associated
Press and four other agencies to order a "kill notification"—meaning it doesn't
meet their photo standards, and shouldn't be used.
But is it really a cause for concern, or just much ado about nothing?
"Do we care if Charlotte's little sweater is there, or the hand is there? You just
really want to see her and have confirmation that she's alright."
Intended to snuff out the raging speculation online that the Palace is hiding something about
Kate's condition, the "Photoshop fail" instead poured petrol on the flames. So who's to blame?
"That's a very good question."
The photo was credited to Prince William,
but Kate, in her apology, implies that she's the one who edited it:
"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."
The media had a field day on Monday morning, analyzing the image—and even recreating it:
"I'm really happy to be here, everybody! And everything's intact!"
Online, some amateur sleuths saw the poorly edited pic as evidence that the
surgery saga has taken a dark turn, and that something must be seriously wrong.
The Palace had one job, after all: Release a single normal photograph of the princess.
Instead, royal watchers saw evidence of AI trickery in the hair, and in Prince Louis'
gnarly fingers, with one calling his twisty digits "a common sign of an AI generated image."
Others thought Kate's arms looked too long, or noted that her zipper doesn't line up. Why did
the Palace release such a heavily altered image, knowing the world would analyze every pixel?
"They would have been incredibly aware just how heavily scrutinized this image was going to be."
Kate was hospitalized on January 16th for a "planned abdominal surgery"—but
sources later told Page Six that even her closest aides were unaware of the
procedure that would put her out of commission until after Easter.
The official statement acknowledged that her lengthy recovery out of
the public eye would cause a stir—but she had her reasons:
"[The Princess of Wales] hopes that the public will understand her desire
to maintain as much normality for her children as possible;
and her wish that her personal medical information remains private."
Now, Kate's put her kids at the center of all the drama
by drawing so much attention to the Frankenphoto.
"What is going on, that this was even able to get out there?"
Prince William further fueled all the conspiracy talk in late
February by skipping a ceremony to honor his godfather, King Constantine II of Greece,
over a "personal matter" that many assumed was related to Kate's health.
"They refuse to go into any further detail on that,
other than to confirm—reassure us—that the princess is fine."
And last week, the British Army announced that
Kate would be reviewing the "Trooping the Colour" ceremony in June. But her
name was later removed from the list of attendees, creating even more confusion.