Kate apologises for ‘confusion’ after digitally editing family photo

The Princess of Wales posed with her children for a family photo – the first to be issued since Kate’s abdominal surgery – to mark Mother’s Day.

Evaluation: Digitally altered

Kate personally apologised for the “confusion” over the digitally altered family photograph, saying: “Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing.”

The facts

The photograph of Kate and her children, taken by the Prince of Wales, was the first to be issued since the princess’s abdominal surgery and was released at 9am on Sunday March 10 by Kensington Palace to mark Mother’s Day.

But it was withdrawn with a “kill” notice by international picture agencies hours later – and by the UK and Ireland’s national news agency PA Media on March 11 – because of suspicions it had been manipulated.

Later on Monday, Kate personally apologised for the “confusion” over the digitally altered family photograph released by Kensington Palace, signed “C”.

“Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing,” she said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

“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. C.”

Metadata attached to the original image supplied to PA Media by the Palace showed the image had been saved in photo editing software Adobe Photoshop twice – first at 9.54pm on Friday and then again at 9.39am on Saturday. Both saves appear to have been made on an Apple Mac but it was unclear whether it was the same device on each occasion.

Concerns were initially raised over a missing part of Princess Charlotte’s sleeve and the misaligned edge of her skirt, with other speculation including the positioning of Kate’s zip.

US news agency AP said “while there was no suggestion the image was fake”, it added “close study of the image revealed inconsistencies that suggested it had been altered, for instance in the alignment of Princess Charlotte’s left hand with the sleeve of her sweater”.

Reuters said part of the sleeve of Kate’s daughter’s cardigan did not line up properly, suggesting that the image had been altered.

International news agencies Getty Images, AFP and EPA also withdrew the image.

The PA news agency withdrew the image at 10.07am on Monday, saying: “We became aware of concerns about the image and we carried a report about it last night, and made clear that we were seeking urgent clarification about the image from Kensington Palace. In the absence of that clarification, we are killing the image from our picture service.”

Kate’s apology was posted on X at 10.28am on Monday.

Despite calls for the original to be published, Kensington Palace told PA it would not be reissuing the unedited photograph of Kate and her children.

Kate underwent surgery at the London Clinic on January 16, but details of her condition have been kept private, and she is not expected to return to official duties until after Easter.

Links

Original image and post on X (archived)

The Princess of Wales’ apology on X (archived)

AP’s explanation why it retracted the image (archived)

Reuters’ explanation why it retracted the image (archived)

Getty Images’ picture kill notice on the Manchester Evening News (archived)

AFP’s explanation of why it retracted the image (archived)

EPA’s picture kill (archived)

Daily Mail story on PA withdrawing the image (archived)

BBC News story on Kate’s abdominal surgery (archived)