Media Agencies Pull Kate Middleton's Picture Citing Manipulation Concerns (image@KensingtonRoyal)
The first photograph of Princess of Wales, Kate Middleton, that released after she went abdominal surgery has been pulled by media agencies. The move came amidst concerns that the image was a manipulated one.
The picture, which was issued on Mother’s Day, showed a happy family with a smiling Princess of Wales clad in jeans, sweater and jacket surrounded by her three children, George, Charlotte and Louis. However, upon closer inspection, the left hand of Princess Charlotte is misaligned with the sleeves of her cardigan, giving birth to the suspicions on the authenticity of the picture.
Thank you for your kind wishes and continued support over the last two months.
Wishing everyone a Happy Mother”s Day. C
📸 The Prince of Wales, 2024 pic.twitter.com/6DywGBpLLQ
— The Prince and Princess of Wales (@KensingtonRoyal) March 10, 2024
News agencies like Reuters, Associated Press (AP), Getty Images, and Agence France-Presse (AFP) issued a notice asking not to use the image of Kate Middleton and her three children, which was released by the Kensington Palace.
AP said that the picture was withdrawn because upon “closer inspection, it appears that the source had manipulated the image” and that the picture showed an “inconsistency in the alignment” of the left hand of Kate’s daughter, Princess Charlotte.
AFP said that the picture cannot be used as it had been “altered”. Reuters said the picture had been taken down “following a post-publication review”.
The Kensington Palace did not respond to media request to comment on the issue.
The picture was posted on the official X (formerly twitter) handle of The Prince and Princess of Wales, and was captioned as, “thank you for your kind wishes and continued support over the last two months”, wishing the public a Happy Mother’s Day.
Purportedly, the image was taken by Kate’s husband, Prince William, during last month on the grounds of the Windsor Castle outside London. The image was released after an unusually long public absence of the 42-year-old Princess.
She has been recovering from surgery mainly at their home in Windsor, west of London, after leaving the hospital on January 29. She was admitted to the hospital on January 16.
Kate Middleton was last photographed in public during Christmas Day walk in the Sandringham, eastern part of England. Earlier, a phot was published by TMZ on March which showed Kate wearing sunglasses while in a car. The celebrity news site said they were taken near Windsor Castle.
Media outlets including the Daily Mail and The Sun stayed away from publishing the picture. The sighting of the Princess came amid a flurry of conspiracy theories on social media on the absence of the future Queen from the spotlight.
The theories came despite the Kensington Palace said during the time of her surgery that she would be “unlikely to return to public duties until after Easter”. It is also said that the surgery was not to cancer.
