‘Photoshopped’ royal photo causes a stir

Major press agencies have pulled a photo of the U.K.’s Princess of Wales and her children amid concerns that it’s been digitally manipulated.

The image, shared on the Prince and Princess of Wales’ Instagram account on Mother’s Day (yes, moms in the U.K. are celebrated two months earlier than the U.S.), faced more scrutiny than usual as it’s the first to show Princess Kate since she disappeared from public view after undergoing abdominal surgery in January.

Soon after the photo was shared and added to the picture libraries of prominent press agencies such as Reuters, the Associated Press (AP), Getty Images, and Agence France-Presse (AFP), the same agencies told media outlets to erase the image from their systems and archives.

Looking at the image in more detail, it’s hard to argue with the agencies’ claims that the image has been subjected to some Photoshopping, and pretty poor Photoshopping at that. The end of Princess Charlotte’s left sleeve, for example, seems to have been edited, along with part of her skirt. A third close-up suggests that her hair has been Photoshopped, too. Other discrepancies have also been pointed out.

The AP agency told Sky News that it had initially published the photo as it had been issued by Kensington Palace, which represents the Princess and Princess of Wales, but said it later removed it from circulation because on “closer inspection, it appears that the source had manipulated the image in a way that did not meet AP’s photo standards.”

Reuters said it had decided to remove the picture following a “post-publication review”, and the AFP said it had “come to light” that the image of the “Princess of Wales and her kids had been altered” and so it had decided to take it off its database of images, according to Sky News.

While the edits may seem minor at first sight, news agencies with a reputation to protect rarely circulate images that have been heavily — or in this case shoddily — altered.

Kensington Palace said in January that Kate was doing well following the surgical procedure but it has said little since. The silence regarding her condition has sent the rumor mill spinning, and so putting out an apparently manipulated image is likely to add to speculation and even dent people’s trust in the royals’ press releases.

Kensington Palace has so far declined to comment on the matter and the image remains on the’ Instagram account.

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