Over the past year, the Prince and Princess of Wales have sparked debate when releasing official portraits of themselves and their children, as social media users and commentators have analyzed each image closely.

On March 10, a portrait released to mark Mother’s Day in Britain saw speculation and conspiracy theories reach a new height as a number of sources highlighted apparent image manipulation throughout the frame.

This led photography loving Kate to issue an apology through the royal social media accounts, highlighting that she is an “amateur” photographer and as such “occasionally” experiments with editing.

As the fallout from the photo controversy continues, Newsweek takes a look at some of the images from William and Kate in recent months that have sparked allegations of editing.
Mother’s Day Controversy

On March 10, the Prince and Princess of Wales’ social media accounts posted an image of Kate with Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis to mark Mother’s Day in Britain.

A statement from Kensington Palace at the time read: “A new picture of The Princess of Wales, Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis was posted on our social media channels today to mark Mother’s Day.

“The image was taken in Windsor earlier this week by the Prince of Wales.”

Social media users were quick to highlight a number of apparent examples where editing was used on the image. Highlighting a masking issue around Princess Charlotte’s right sleeve, a cut in Kate’s jacket zip and blending issues to steps behind Prince Louis’ trousers.

As the image was the first official photograph of Kate since her absence from public life following abdominal surgery in January, the edited nature of the image added to speculation about her health and whereabouts.

These issues led photo and news agencies, including The Press Association, to issue a “kill” notice to news outlets, asking them to cease using the image as it violated their guidelines.

On March 11, just over 24 hours after the image was initially uploaded, Kate issued a rare personally authored statement to social media, reading: “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.”