Lay off Kate – she meant well, made a mistake and fessed up so leave her alone to get over her op

TODAY The Sun says this to all the social media trolls, idiotic conspiracy theorists and sniping media critics: Lay off Kate.

Their furious attacks on the future Queen over her photoshopping of a Mother’s Day family picture are not just absurd.

They now look like a bullying campaign against a devoted mum, recovering from a serious operation, who simply wanted to offer the public a perfect portrait of her and her kids.

She knew it would be scrutinised for the ­tiniest flaws and sought to iron them out.

Millions of others do the same in the Instagram age and are sometimes also let down by their Photoshop skills.

The suggestion that Princess Kate has engulfed the Royals in some sort of credibility crisis is laughably overblown.

Kate was an ordinary Home Counties girl thrust into the spotlight and a life of public duty by her relationship with William — and has never put a foot wrong since.

And yet she has long been a target for deranged and unjustified smears, not least from a certain former Royal couple from Montecito, California.

But it was typical of her, once the picture’s tweaks were revealed, to hold her hands up and apologise.

She meant well, made a mistake and fessed up. Fair enough.

Now leave her alone to get over her op.