Kate Middleton’s ‘manipulated’ photo fuels chaos 

The photograph of Kate Middleton surrounded by her family was supposed to reassure the public. “Thank you for your kind wishes and continued support over the last two months. Wishing everyone a Happy Mother’s Day,” the caption alongside the picture read.

Seasoned royal watchers saw a code in the terse statement: you’ve had your fun speculating what’s going on when it comes to the Princess of Wales’s absence from public life on health grounds, but I’m here, I’m fine, and there’s nothing to worry about. This should, under normal circumstances, have put an end to the matter. But then the picture was withdrawn by four international photo agencies, including Getty Images and Reuters. “At closer inspection it appears that the source has manipulated the image,” as Associated Press put it. Cue chaos.

Various strange anomalies in the photo were spotted by internet sleuths

There had been several weeks of gossip about the Princess of Wales’s whereabouts, after she had not been seen in public since she had undergone abdominal surgery in January. The rumors have been reaching fever pitch of absurdity, but such details as Prince William not attending the memorial service for King Constantine of Greece because of “a personal matter” have been taken, whisked up in a blender of tittle-tattle and prurient speculation — and are now fair game for discussion on every forum, social media site or office water cooler in the country.

It was vital then for Kensington Palace that the increasing hysteria should be brought under control. The distribution of the innocuous-looking picture, showing Kate looking well and cheerful with her three children, would have been a carefully managed attempt to resolve the matter. It was announced that the photograph was taken by Prince William himself — thereby explaining his absence in it — and at first, it seemed to do its job. And then various strange anomalies in the photo were spotted by internet sleuths. Why was the princess wearing neither her engagement nor wedding ring, which are usually mainstays of any picture distributed publicly? Why did Princess Charlotte’s wrist look so strange? Why was Prince Louis crossing his fingers in a bizarre way? Why did the leaves on the tree look more like autumn than early spring? In other words, what should have been a normal, happy photograph look as if it had undergone a near-Stalinist level of alteration. What was going on?

At the time of writing, Kensington Palace has not made any statement on the news agencies’ decision to remove the picture from their websites and publications, presumably because they are in full crisis mode. Yet this is a wholly unforced error, which will only have fueled further, even wilder conspiracy theories amongst people who might have considered the earlier rumors baseless. At best, it is a particularly shoddy piece of photoshopping. Pictures of the royal family have routinely been manipulated or touched up to show them in the best possible light, and this is an accepted (if not always welcomed) part of the relationship between them, the media and the wider public. Yet the ineptitude with which this has been done shows that Kensington Palace, which has often struggled to get ahead of the rumors in this regard, has acted too hastily and has destroyed any advantage it might have obtained.

At worst, it is a damning indication of how their secrecy over Kate’s health situation has backfired on the royals. Recent paparazzi pictures, showing the princess in dark glasses being driven by her mother, showed a pale and drawn-looking woman, miles away from the healthy and smiling figure in yesterday’s photo. Suspicions that something is more seriously amiss than has been let on are hardly unfounded. If the palace wants to take back the initiative, their only option now is greater candor, embarrassing and intrusive though it might be. Otherwise, this debacle will only fan sensational reports of the princess’s health difficulties, and the ensuing cover-up, and the resulting brouhaha could end up being existentially damaging to the reputation of Kensington Palace and the wider royal family. This at a time when, to be frank, they need all the good publicity they can get.

Since the death of Elizabeth II eighteen months ago, “the Firm” seems to have been in perpetual crisis mode. While the late queen hardly micromanaged every news release and picture sent out during her reign, it is hard to imagine she would have been party to something as frankly amateurish as this, which is a damning judgement on an operation that is simply not as tight and professional as it should be. And the rumors, baroque and absurd though they are, will only grow, damagingly.

Update: The Princess of Wales has since confirmed that she edited the photograph. In a statement released on Twitter, Kate wrote:

“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.”

This article was originally published on The Spectator’s UK website.