It may not be the last suspicious image put out by the royals.
Less than two weeks after Kate Middleton’s family portrait caused an international scandal, Kensington Palace is back in the spotlight with another accusation of photo manipulation. This time, a photo posted in April 2023 is under the microscope as numerous photo agencies have determined that the image was digitally enhanced. And the Princess of Wales isn’t in the image — she took it.
The latest Royal Family photo under renewed scrutiny
In April 2023, the Prince and Princess of Wales posted an image to their social media of the late Queen Elizabeth II surrounded by her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. According to the caption, it was taken at Balmoral in the summer of 2022 by Kate.
Back in 2023, there were concerns that the image was altered — Danielle Stacey, Hello! Magazine‘s online royal correspondent, told Katie Couric Media earlier this month that the image’s authenticity was questioned last year — but ultimately the royal family never commented on it. The Guardian suspected Prince Louis was moved back in the frame and that one of the Queen’s great-granddaughter’s locks of hair was copied. The allegations didn’t cause an international stir, however — Christopher Bouzy, a tech entrepreneur who appeared in the 2022 docuseries Harry & Meghan, surmised at the time that the reasons for altering the photo may not have been nefarious or even suspicious. “It isn’t easy to get the perfect photo with 10 children,” he said. “It appears they took multiple shots and then edited the photo to make it perfect.”
But things changed once the Palace released what was supposed to be Kate’s first official portrait since her surgery, and it was quickly deduced to have been altered. Numerous photo agencies, including Getty and the Associated Press, issued a kill notice for the Mother’s Day photo — and even though the Princess of Wales issued an apology for the alterations, the damage was done and it caused other images put forth by the Palace to be scrutinized.
Which brings us to March 19, when Getty Images accused Kensington Palace of manipulating the Balmoral photo. The agency “placed an editor’s note on a handout image stating the image has been digitally enhanced at source,” according to a statement given to Sky News. A Getty spokesperson told Forbes it “is undertaking a review of handout images” and will place editor’s notes on any images “where the source has suggested they could be digitally enhanced.”
Has Kensington Palace issued a statement about the photo?
Although Princess Kate responded to the hullabaloo surrounding her Mother’s Day photo, Kensington Palace has not commented on this latest controversy.
Did Kate and William edit their Christmas card?
The Balmoral photo isn’t the first one the royals have been accused of altering. Back in December 2023, the Prince and Princess of Wales posted their Christmas card to social media. The black-and-white family photo depicted the family in coordinating button-downs and jeans.
Some social media users were convinced the portrait was manipulated and believed Prince Louis was missing a finger and some thought there was “an extra leg” in the snap. The royals didn’t comment on the backlash, although an insider told Us Weekly that they “were as shocked as anyone else” by the reaction. It’s not clear if any of the major photo agencies are setting their sights on the holiday card as their next target.
How all this will affect the already eroding faith in the royal family
The two recent photography mishaps have inspired countless memes and jokes, but they’ve also had a serious impact on how news agencies cover the royal family.
Phil Chetwynd, the global news director of the Agence France-Presse, explained to BBC Radio 4 in the wake of the Mother’s Day photo fiasco that the decision to kill a photo based on concerns it was manipulated happens extremely rarely — “once a year maybe, I hope less,” he said. That’s because such retractions are highly unusual, and they typically only happen with content from North Korean and Iranian state media. Now, Chetwynd said, Kensington Palace is “absolutely not” considered a “trusted source” anymore: “Like with anything, when you’re let down by a source, the bar is raised.”
It wasn’t just AFP that reconsidered its relationship with the royal family — CNN announced it would be reviewing “all handout photos previously provided by Kensington Palace” and Getty Images is doing the same.
“The royal family is not used to getting those kinds of statements said about them in the press and by high-powered officials,” Ellie Hall, a royal correspondent who worked for BuzzFeed News, told us last week when we interviewed her about Kate’s first Photoshop fail. “We’re also seeing people look at stories about members of the royal family that have come out over the years and really wondering about how honest and how transparent the palace has been,” she added.
Despite the Princess being spotted and photographed in public, speculation about her condition continues to proliferate on social media, with people questioning the validity of the reports and images published by TMZ and The Sun. She’s supposed to resume royal duties after Easter, which is less than two weeks away, and her return to the public eye is sure to be closely watched.
