A recent family photo of the Princess of Wales, Kate Middleton, and her three kids raised eyebrows. She found herself embroiled in a social media storm after posting an edited picture of herself with her children on UK Mother’s Day. The edited picture raised questions about her whereabouts and caused a great deal of debate on social media. Prince William took the photo in Windsor, according to a statement made public by Kensington Palace.
By day’s end, the picture released by Kensington Palace had been pulled by a number of news outlets, including the Associated Press and Reuters, who claimed the image had been ‘manipulated’.
According to a recent report, Middleton regrets it terribly and has since issued an apology for all the “confusion” that it might have caused. In a recent episode, the hosts of The Daily Show expressed skepticism regarding the Princess of Wales’ apology for the photoshopped image.
Kate Middleton Finds the Edited Photo ‘Awful’, Wanted it to Look the ‘Best it Could’
Prince William took a photo (as mentioned above), which was released on Sunday in honor of Mother’s Day in the United Kingdom. On Monday, Kate Middleton, the Princess of Wales, apologized for “any confusion” that may have arisen from it.
The mother of three, 42, posted on X on March 11, saying:
“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.”
Upon closer inspection, the Daily Mail has found 16 problems with the Princess of Wales’ portrait featuring her 3 kids. Several photographers that The Mail spoke with and quoted claimed that the photo appeared to have been altered, though their expert judgments on the use of Photoshop differed.
According to Sky News’ analysis of the image file’s metadata, there is evidence that Photoshop was used to create the image. According to the outlet, the picture was saved twice on an Apple Mac using Photoshop, “but it is unclear if it was saved on the same device”.
The outlet also claimed that the picture was saved twice: once on Friday at 9:54 p.m. and again on Saturday at 9:39 a.m. The same things were reported by the BBC.
The photo was taken at Adelaide Cottage, the Windsor residence of the Prince and Princess of Wales, using a professional Canon 5D Mark IV camera and a 50mm lens, as reported by the outlet.
The Aftermath: The Daily Show Hosts’ Reaction to Kate Middleton’s Viral Edited Picture
Kate Middleton apologized, however, raising doubts about how sincere her apology was in the face of criticism. Specifically, Desi Lydic and Michael Kosta, senior correspondents for The Daily Show, have been vocal about their doubts and refuse to believe that Prince William’s wife is truly sorry for what she did.
Lydic stated:
“I’m calling bullsh*t that Kate was the one who edited that photo. They don’t even pick their own noses. They have butlers for that. You think she is doing her own photoshopping? The only thing that they know how to do without help is adultery.”
“Pictures can be manipulated, but modern cameras do not lie…if you can access the metadata embedded in the image file, which we did”, stated Tom Clarke, the science and technology editor at Sky News, in a video that was released on Monday.
The portrait garnered extra attention because it was Middleton’s first official photo released after her abdominal surgery in January 2024. The Princess of Wales has not been seen in public since Christmas, so the buzz only increased when Kensington Palace declared that she was “unlikely to return to public duties until after Easter”.
Anyway, appearances can sometimes be deceiving in this world. So, it is important to approach everything with a critical eye and a healthy dose of skepticism.
