On Mother's Day, Kensington Palace released the first image of the Princess of Wales since she underwent 'planned abdominal surgery' in January. The sweet image, which was taken by Prince William, showed Kate sitting on a chair in the garden surrounded by their three children, Prince George, 10, Princess Charlotte, eight, and Prince Louis, five.
However, hours after the photograph was posted to the official social media accounts of the Prince and Princess of Wales, a series of photo agencies including Reuters, Getty Images, Associated Press and AFP, pulled the image from their systems and issued a 'kill notice.' This required all clients to remove the picture from their platforms, too.
Kensington Palace did not give a response when asked if the image had been edited. But, Kate did clear up the rumours on Twitter on Monday, March 11, admitting to editing the photo. She said: "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."
While image initially sparked claims of artificial manipulation - which is a huge current concern to the news industry due to AI technology altering photographs - it's not the first time the royal family have been caught out for photo 'fails.'
Here are all the pictures that have baffled royal fans...
The 2023 Christmas photo
The most recent royal mishap was the family's 2023 Christmas portrait, which they released back in December. Photographed by Josh Shinner, the image showed the young royal family all casually dressed in jeans and white shirts, and was printed in black and white.
Upon release, many fans commented straight away that Prince Louis' middle finger appeared to be missing. Elsewhere, social media sleuths noticed that only one of Kate's feet could be seen behind the chair Princess Charlotte was sitting on. Others questioned why Prince William's right leg was only visible.
Despite claims of image alterations, a royal source insisted the photo hadn't been edited. They told Mail Online: "It's not Photoshopped. It seems as if he [Louis] just bent his finger over. He's certainly not lost a finger – don't worry about that!"
Queen Elizabeth II's 97th birthday portrait
In 2023, a photo of the late Queen Elizabeth sitting with eight of her 12 great-grandchildren was released to mark what would have been the former monarch's 97th birthday.
The wholesome image was taken by Kate Middleton just weeks before the Queen's death, and featured Lady Louise Mountbatten-Windsor, James, Earl of Wessex, Lena Tindall, Prince George, Princess Charlotte, Isla Phillips, Prince Louis, Mia Tindall, Lucas Tindall and Savannah Phillips. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's two children, Prince Archie, four, and Princess Lilibet, two, were noticeably missing.
This photo sparked editing rumours after tech CEO Christopher Bouzy pointed out the alleged alterations on Twitter - suggesting that the sofa had been "spliced together." Meanwhile, the Queen's tartan skirt also looked to be misaligned.
Christopher made it clear that he didn't see anything wrong with the photo being Photoshopped, he was merely commenting on the image.
Prince Philip's 99th birthday portrait
An official portrait was released in 2020 ahead of Prince Philip's 99th birthday. It was captioned: "This new photograph of The Duke of Edinburgh and The Queen was taken last week in the quadrangle at Windsor Castle to mark His Royal Highness's 99th birthday tomorrow."
The image - which was shared on the royal family's official social media channels - sparked speculation that it had been Photoshopped, and was not taken on the grounds of Windsor Castle after all.
Firstly, fans noted that the Queen's hand was shrouded in shadow, and looked like it had been cut from another photo. Secondly, the senior royals looked shadowy in general, compared to the overexposed backdrop, suggesting their images could have been placed over the top.
