"A picture can be interpreted in a million different ways."
The internet is going into full forensic analysis mode over the Photoshopped picture
of Princess Catherine of Wales — and what it might mean for the state of her marriage.
The big question is: Could history sadly be repeating itself with another royal affair?
Social media is toying with the possibility. Some observers are drawing parallels between
Prince William and his father, King Charles III, who famously had an affair
with Queen Camilla while still married to Princess Diana. We've all heard the quote:
"Well, there were three of us in this marriage. So it was a bit crowded."
Kate Middleton's disappearance from the public eye has fueled long-standing speculation that
Prince William and his rumored mistress, Rose Hanbury, are having an affair of their own.
In January 2024, Kensington Palace announced Kate had a "planned abdominal
surgery" and wouldn't return to her public duties until after Easter,
which in 2024 is March 31st. Kate has only been seen fleetingly since, and her absence
has become a huge point of discussion. Theories about stand-ins and photo manipulation have taken
over the internet. As DailyMail.com U.S. Associate Editor Charlie Lankston put it,
"You've got some people suggesting that it isn't her, that it's a body double,
that it's her sister Pippa, and that she's still in a medically induced coma at home."
The palace had an icy response to all the chatter, reiterating their original statement in a new one:
"Kensington Palace made it clear in January the timelines of the
princess' recovery and we'd only be providing significant updates."
It seems that the palace's big mistake was thinking that the statement — or
the Mother's Day photo of Kate and her kids that it released — would
quell speculation. It was just getting started.
The U.K. celebrates Mother's Day in March instead of May. Kensington Palace released
a photo of Kate with her three children, George, Charlotte, and Louis, in honor of the occasion.
Seems innocuous enough, right? Well, things got far more intense when the Associated Press and
many other news agencies ordered the photo to be retracted because it had been "manipulated."
"That message intended to show that all is well has backfired."
One of the numerous places where the image was undoubtedly edited was around Kate's
hand as she hugged Princess Charlotte. And many onlookers noted a striking detail on
that left hand: Kate wasn't wearing her wedding ring. The image quickly
sparked online speculation that Kate and Prince William's marriage is in trouble,
with some seeing it as proof that the heir to the British throne is having an affair with Hanbury.
Some have even raised the troubling notion that Kate and William have actually split up.
To add fuel to the fire, a few outlets have recently published
profiles of Hanbury. Some observers don't see this as a coincidence. For example,
one person posted on X, formerly Twitter, about Tatler Magazine and The Independent
diving into Hanbury's life just as the image of Kate without her wedding ring hit:
"I'm laughing. The divorce soft launch is going TERRIBLY. It was
gonna be Solo ringless Kate and these two articles on William's
side piece dropped TODAY. The media wants to out the Rose Hanbury affair so baaad."
Rumors of William and Hanbury having an affair have floated around for years. Reportedly,
Hanbury was close with the royal couple before the British tabloid
The Sun reported that she and Kate had a supposed falling out.
In 2019, writers Nicole Cliffe and Giles Coren claimed that William had an affair with Hanbury,
which picked up public interest. Nothing was ever confirmed, but rumors around Prince
William and Hanbury are raging, once again, thanks to that now-infamous doctored photo.
And the PR efforts to put out the fire don't seem to be helping. A post to the Prince and
Princess of Wales' X account, signed "C" to indicate Catherine herself wrote it, said,
"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."
People don't seem to be buying it.
"This is the royal family. They don't do anything
themselves. They don't even pick their own noses. They have butlers for that."