Misan Harriman Shuts Down Allegations of Doctoring Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan’s Photo

After Princess Kate’s Mother’s Day portrait degenerated into a full-blown Photoshop scandal, British tabloids have unsurprisingly turned a critical eye toward Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan.

The Daily Mail and the The Sun both published stories Tuesday claiming that Misan Harriman, a photographer and close friend of the Sussexes, admitted to doctoring the portrait the couple had used to announce Meghan’s pregnancy in 2021. Harriman refuted the allegations in a video he posted on X early this morning.

“Unfortunately, there’s been an article on the Daily Mail saying that I have admitted to doctoring the pregnancy announcement portrait I took of Harry and Meghan,” he begins in the almost four-minute clip. “Apparently, I was switching out trees and meadows, and I admitted to this in an episode of a podcast called Private Passions. This is crazy.”

Harriman goes on to explain the context of the interview with host Michael Berkeley. “We were talking about the technology I used to shoot people during lockdown. Many photographers were doing virtual shoots in those days, and this is how we came onto the subject,” he said. “Michael asked me a few leading questions in this interview. What I mean by ‘leading questions’ is what some journalists do is where they make a statement as fact and they hope you respond or add something to it.”

He continues: “I get that a lot in regards to Harry and Meghan, and I tend to swerve, ignore, try and get back on track, and say what I’m there to say, rather than any sort of intrigue and gossip. And that’s exactly what happened.”

Harriman then plays the portion of the interview that tabloids have used as evidence of his admission of “doctoring” the couple’s portrait.

misan harriman

Misan Harriman
Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan’s 2021 pregnancy portrait

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The photographer says in the interview, “My most well-known virtual shoot is a portrait I took of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announcing their pregnancy. It’s a very joyous image. The technology allows you to take over a phone or an iPad, and they can hear my voice, and I can still press the shutter and compose with ease. It’s extraordinary what you can do with technology.”

Berkeley then asks, “They weren’t actually under a willow tree, but they were lying outside in a meadow, weren’t they—Harry and Meghan? When you took the photograph of them?”

Harriman answers the question indirectly, saying, “They were lost in their love at home in their garden, comfortable, celebrating new joy, new life, with fortitude of hoping for light in life, after such loss that they went through with a miscarriage. So it really was a particularly joyous image to celebrate life itself.”

Harriman stops the interview playback at that point. “So, how that exchange could amount to me admitting to doctoring an image is insidious and really dangerous journalism,” he says. “Any mention of meadows and willow trees came out of the person doing the interview, not my mouth. I did my best to ignore it and focus on what I wanted to talk about.”

He then lambastes the integrity of the Daily Mail. “To see an article saying, as fact, that I did what I did not do is extraordinary to me. And then to try and merge it with this current news cycle of what’s happening is just—is tragic to see,” Harriman says. “It was a virtual shoot that I shot on an iPad, an eight-megapixel iPad. And the only thing that was changed is the black-and-white color grade. That’s it. And the Daily Mail and the journalist who wrote this has to be better than this. It’s dangerous and unacceptable behavior.”

He later shared the original, color version of the pregnancy portrait, as well as a screenshot of the metadata from the image file, which indicated it had been captured on the iPad he mentioned.

“The original Jpeg without the black and White grade, I expect a full apology and retraction from @MailOnline@Telegraph@victoria_ward,” the photographer wrote. “No trees or meadows were moved or swapped, this is the image straight out of camera. Also that is a Jacaranda Tree, not a willow tree.”

The allegations levied against Harriman and the Sussexes come amid a tense time for the British royal family after major news agencies recalled a portrait of Kate—the first official photo of her since Kensington Palace announced her recovery from abdominal surgery in mid-January—for image manipulation. The move prompted the palace to issue a rare personal apology attributed to the princess, which read: “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.”

In the photo, which also features Kate and Prince William’s three kids, people found evidence of Photoshop editing in Princess Charlotte’s sleeve, Kate’s jacket zipper, and the tiling on the ground.

Headshot of Chelsey Sanchez

As an associate editor at HarpersBAZAAR.com, Chelsey keeps a finger on the pulse on all things celeb news. She also writes on social movements, connecting with activists leading the fight on workers’ rights, climate justice, and more. Offline, she’s probably spending too much time on TikTok, rewatching Emma (the 2020 version, of course), or buying yet another corset.