The excitement of the Mother’s Day photo released by Kensington Palace quickly turned negative as many media outlets pulled the photo they viewed as being altered.
The photo showed the Princess of Wales with her children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis. Upon further inspection, the photo seemed to be edited, according to CNN.
The photo was released Sunday and by Monday, Kate was taking responsibility for editing the photo.
“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,” the palace postedon X, formerly Twitter.
The photo, which the palace said was taken by Prince William, showed Kate sitting in a chair with Prince George behind her and flanked by Prince Louis and Princess Charlotte.
“Thank you for your kind wishes and continued support over the last two months,” Kate said in the text with the photo posted on social media. “Wishing everyone a Happy Mother’s Day.”
“An initial CNN review of the image identified at least two areas that appear to show some evidence of potential manipulation, including Princess Charlotte’s sleeve cuff, and a zipper on the lefthand side on the jacket of the Princess of Wales,” CNN reported.
Upon seeing the oddities in the photo, photo agencies sent out “kill notices” and pointed out the photo had been manipulated.
The Princess of Wales has been under scrutiny since undergoing abdominal surgery in January. At that point, it was announced Kate would not appear for any royal duties until Easter. The palace has stood by that statement.
CNN said the palace usually releases a photo on Mother’s Day.
The palace has not responded to the photo being taken down.
The Associated Press was one of those agencies that withdrew the photo. Getty, Reuters and AFP also withdrew the photo Sunday.
“While there was no suggestion the photo was fake, AP retracted it because closer inspection revealed the source had manipulated the image in a way that did not meet AP’s photo standards,” the AP wrote.
Many people took to X with a variety of responses from this being much adieu about nothing to this being another coverup perpetrated by Kensington Palace.