As you may have heard about, Kate Middleton and The Royal Family released a new photo of the princess on Sunday in honor of Mother’s Day in the United Kingdom.
It was unveiled on Middleton and Prince William’s official Instagram page and it featured Kate sitting on a chair and cuddling up to her three kids:
Prince George, 10, Princess Charlotte, 8, and Prince Louis, 5.
Here’s the thing, however…
… IT APPEARS TO HAVE BEEN HEAVILY EDITED.
The photo, in our estimation, was meant to quell speculation over Middleton’s health status, as Kensington Palace released the image amid rumors that the Princess underwent some sort of serious surgery in January.
This same palace has tried to downplay the procedure, although it also confirmed at the time that Kate would be sidelined from official duties until some time in April.
Since an initial statement released by the Royals on January 17… Middleton has only been seen once in public and there’s even been talk of Middleton having been placed in a medically-induced coma.
Enter the photo below… and now enter a brand new controversy.
After this seemingly sweet photo was shared with the public on social media, news agencies across the globe — including the Associated Press, Getty Images, Reuters and the AFP — actually removed the snapshot from their press libraries, citing concerns about manipulation.
The AP reported that it retracted the image “because at closer inspection, it appeared the source had manipulated the image in a way that did not meet AP’s photo standards.
“The photo shows an inconsistency in the alignment of Princess Charlotte’s left hand.”
To be clear, this is a VERY big deal.
This almost never happens, numerous reputable news organizations taking down a picture and outwardly stating they believe it to have been doctored.
Many online commenters noted blurring around one of Charlotte’s sleeves, while others pointed out what seemed to be edits around the children’s hair and hands.
Agence France-Presse, meanwhile, said it had withdrawn the photo due to “an editorial issue,” adding on Sunday:
“It has come to light that this handout photo… issued by Kensington Palace today of the Princess of Wales and her kids had been altered and therefore it was withdrawn from AFP systems.”
A majority of photo agencies and news organizations have strict rules against publishing images that have been overly edited or manipulated.
Reuters, for example, says it only allows the use of Photoshop in “very limited” ways such as cropping or resizing images, or balancing their color
Early on Monday, Prince William, who is credited with taking the photo, wrote on Twitter:
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.
Kate Middleton remained at a London hospital for 12 days after her surgery.
She returned home on January 29 after the palace simply said her procedure was “not cancerous” in nature.
The princess has been recuperating primarily at Adelaide Cottage in the many weeks since, while a follow-up message last month from The Royal Family read as follows:
“Kensington Palace made it clear in January the timelines of the princess’ recovery and we’d only be providing significant updates. That guidance stands.”
A few days ago, Prince William responded to conspiracies over his wife’s health — but we have some bad news for him:
Things are only gonna get worse now.
“Thank you for your kind wishes and continued support over the last two months. Wishing everyone a Happy Mother’s Day,” read the caption from the Middleton on Sunday.
But no one is paying attention to those words now.
They are simply focused on the image affiliated with it, which remains live on Kate and William’s Instagram page and which is raising far more questions than answers at the moment.