The Associated Press and other agencies issued a mandatory takedown notice after Kensington Palace released a poorly photoshopped picture of Kate Middleton, the Princess of Wales.
The picture, meant to address conspiracy theories about Kate’s prolonged absence, sent the internet into overdrive as its bizarre errors were uncovered.
Kate has not been seen in public since Christmas and reportedly underwent abdominal surgery in January. The palace announced she would be absent from her duties until Easter to recover.
When Prince William pulled out of a memorial service at the end of February due to a “personal matter”, speculation and concern for Kate’s health took off on social media.
The theories became so prevalent that the palace issued a statement only to say that Kate “continues to be doing well”.
When that did nothing to stem the rumors, Kensington Palace chose to release a photograph they portrayed as being taken by Prince William earlier in the week. However, the photo did not pass public nor professional scrutiny.
The AP retracted the photo “because at closer inspection, it appeared the source had manipulated the image in a way that did not meet AP’s photo standards,” according to a statement.
Multiple photo agencies such as AP and Reuters have pulled the new photo of Kate Middleton shared by Kensington Palace from circulation amid concerns that it was ‘manipulated.’
Associated Press said the photo was being ‘killed’: “At closer inspection, it appears that the source… pic.twitter.com/QRxQGenBSN
— Pop Base (@PopBase) March 10, 2024
Breaking Down the Errors
The most glaring error is that the photo is purported to be taken recently, yet the background scenery appears to be too green for the season.
The photo also contains multiple editing failures, such as a point where Princess Charlotte’s sweater overlays her mother’s hand and her wrist is erased, where Kate’s hair appears to be erased and her sweater’s zipper disappearing abruptly, and where Kate’s right hand appears strangely out of focus despite everything around it being in focus.
The photo seems to be made up of parts of other pictures combined into one image.
I wasn’t in on this whole conspiracy about Kate Middleton missing and the royals covering it up until they dropped this obviously fake photo today to appease public concern.
I do photography, and work with post processing/editing a lot … here are just a few unexplainable issues pic.twitter.com/O0NBUpIYru
— Jon | Mark (@NerdyTeacher_) March 10, 2024
The palace has not addressed the retraction or the original image it shared as of Sunday night in the US.
And we’re supposed to care??
This reminds me of Obama’s fake birth certificate. They had years and plenty of money to do a good fake, but deliberately issued a poor one.
IMHO, that was intended to draw out the “birthers”, so they could be mocked.
Right! Obama’s so-called birth certificate couldn’t pass the smell test, it had so many errors in it. But Democrats specialize in fakery and lies.