Kate Middleton photo editing controversy explained: Royal Family responds to photoshopping theory

The Royal Family has responded after a picture of Kate Middleton and her children went viral after it was proven to be heavily edited.

Speculation over Kate Middleton’s status began after social media sleuths noticed that she hadn’t made any public appearances in a while. While the theory originally started as a joke on Twitter/X, it went viral after a post from Kate and Prince William’s Twitter account on Mother’s Day.

Eagle-eyed viewers quickly noticed several strange parts of the photo including blurred clothing, inconsistent backgrounds, and even signs of AI-generated images.

#KateMiddleton Actually, to those of us with a background in graphic design, these errors are really amateur. Zoom right in: there are multiple coloured circles where no coloured circles should be. And once you’ve seen it, you can’t unsee it pic.twitter.com/hn7FgvtcBA

— Sophy Boyle (@wyvernandstar) March 11, 2024

The photo and the ensuing investigation went viral after several large press agencies, including Reuters and PA, issued “kill notifications” on the story and image, withdrawing the photo from publication due to concerns about verifying it as legitimate.

Kate Middleton admits to editing photos of Royal Family on social media

While the story originally started as a minor conspiracy theory, the prominence of the edited image spread the theory significantly on social media, especially Twitter/X.

After news about the photo’s editing went viral, Kate Middleton broke her silence on the topic, taking to Instagram and Twitter to explain why the photo was edited.

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. C

— The Prince and Princess of Wales (@KensingtonRoyal) March 11, 2024

The message reads: “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.”

Some found the response unconvincing, with #WhereIsKate trending on Twitter shortly after the message. One viral TikToker theorized that the picture had actually been taken in 2023, and that the clothing of the children had been altered to make it look like it had been taken more recently.

At time of writing, the Royal Family has not made any additional responses to the situation.