News/Commentary

Royal Kate Middleton’s Mother’s Day photo abruptly ‘killed’ by top agencies

March 11, 2024 | | Print Article

Top news agencies have pulled a photo of Princess Kate Middleton with her children, supposedly taken by Prince William and shared on official palace social media accounts, over claims that it had been manipulated.

The Associated Press said in a statement that the photo issued by Kensington Palace was retracted because it appeared to have been “manipulated.”

“While there was no suggestion the photo was fake, AP retracted it because closer inspection revealed the source had manipulated the image in a way that did not meet AP’s photo standards,” the news agency reported.

Middleton is seen sitting in a chair surrounded by her children, Prince George, Prince Louis, and Princess Charlotte, in the photo released to celebrate Mother’s Day in the U.K.

“Thank you for your kind wishes and continued support over the last two months. Wishing everyone a Happy Mother’s Day,” the caption read, signed with a “C” for Catherine, Princess of Wales.

AP issued what is known as a “photo kill,” an industry term that retracted the image and instructed clients to remove the photo from their systems — the image above tweeted from the official Prince and Princess of Wales X account remains up and has been viewed by 67.7 million people as of this writing.

“At closer inspection it appears that the source has manipulated the image. No replacement photo will be sent,” the news agency said in its advisory.

Reuters and Getty also pulled the photo from their sites, according to the Daily Mail.

Here’s more from the British tabloid:

From Prince Louis’ hands to clothing patterns and lines not matching up, eagle-eyed members of the public pointed out a litany of what they believed to be suspicious issues with the photo.

The most common ‘editing errors’ found by social media sleuths were Kate’s absent wedding ring, Charlotte’s blurred skirt and her partially missing sleeve and Kate’s misaligned zip.

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Rumors about Middleton’s health have been swirling since it was announced in January that she had been hospitalized and underwent abdominal surgery. She is not expected to resume public duties until Easter.

“This is damaging for the royals. They knew there would be intense interest in any picture they released of Kate,” royal commentator Peter Hunt told the Daily Mail. “Their challenge is that people will now question whether they can be trusted and believed when they next issue a health update.”

Social media users were all over the so-called conspiracy… here’s a quick sampling of responses to the story, as seen on X:

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Tom Tillison
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