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Take a good look at this photo and try to identify as many weird things as you can in 30 seconds.
Thank you for your kind wishes and continued support over the last two months.
Wishing everyone a Happy Mother’s Day. C
???? The Prince of Wales, 2024 pic.twitter.com/6DywGBpLLQ
— The Prince and Princess of Wales (@KensingtonRoyal) March 10, 2024
If you couldn’t spot anything weird, don’t be too hard on yourself. This image looks normal until you really scrutinise it or know where to look.
By the way, Mother’s Day (or Mothering Sunday) in the United Kingdom is in March, not May; so if that was the “error” you spotted then sorry to tell you but you’re back to square one.
What’s Wrong With the Image
Looks like Princess Charlotte had a little difficulty choosing which shoes to wear, and decided to wear one with a heel and one without.
Maybe she crossed her legs too much when sitting down so now one leg is longer than the other. That’s why she only wears a shoe with a heel on one foot.
Or, maybe, just maybe, the picture was edited.
What’s going on with Princess Charlotte’s skirt?
Reader: Don’t tell me even that is edited!
Well, look at it. Does it really look unedited to you?
Here’s another one on Princess Charlotte – part of her sweater sleeve (on her left hand) is missing!
The ground behind Prince Louis also appears to be edited – why isn’t it a clean line?
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In the same vein, the ledge below seems to be edited. If you really concentrate, you’ll notice it’s once again not a clean line.
There are several other things that look “wrong” but I’ll leave you to spot them yourself or check out X (formerly Twitter) to see what others have spotted.
— Lively Stones (@LivelyStones1) March 11, 2024
Netizens’ Responses
When the image was posted, some started pointing out several weird things about the photo. Seeing this, even more people began to scrutinise it, finding minor flaws in the picture.
Some claimed it was AI-generated and others began conspiracy theories on why this happened.
To contextualise why people are creating conspiracy theories over a simple photoshop, we have to look at Catherine “Kate” Middleton’s recent lack of press coverage.
Until this week, the Princess of Wales had not been photographed since Christmas – almost three months ago. She was reportedly in the hospital for an abdominal surgery.
A couple weeks ago, some noticed that there had been absolutely no press coverage of her, which is strange as the British press is not known for being restrained in their coverage of the princess.
Think of it this way: right now, you’re seeing images of Taylor Swift everywhere, whether you want to or not. If all media suddenly stops posting about her, wouldn’t alarm bells go off?
Then, a blurry picture of her in the car with her mother was published, and people speculated about the image.
Kate Middleton seen for the first time in months riding in the passenger seat of a car being driven by her mother. pic.twitter.com/j0GVr3YUbj
— Yashar Ali ???? (@yashar) March 4, 2024
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Kate Middleton Thead 1/3 Ok people. I think I’ve actually cracked the Kate Middleton case. When the zoomed in pic of her in the car with her mum was released, I thought I could see a large flesh coloured plaster across her nose (covered up somewhat by her glasses)… pic.twitter.com/JJTZIthhKu
— Karl Adams (@monkeyboyadams) March 11, 2024
After a week or so after that photo was published, Kensington Palace released the fated picture of Princess Kate and her three kids, taken by Prince William.
Because of all the ongoing speculation, people started to scrutinise the photo to see if they could get any clues on what was going on (and form more theories).
Female internet investigators uncovering that the Kate Middleton picture was actually taken in late 2023 based on the matched ribbing on Kate Middleton’s sweater (which is only sold in two colors -white and cream) and therefore Kate’s black sweater was photoshopped. pic.twitter.com/btCjRUBHwq
— Maggie (@LibertyAnders) March 11, 2024
I truly thought everyone was being funny about kate middleton but this photoshop thing and the weird statement saying she photoshopped it like. is she dead? I’m starting to fear she may actually be dead
— ellie schnitt (@holy_schnitt) March 11, 2024
There were, however, some individuals who pointed out that such photoshopping is normal, especially when dealing with young children who tend to move around a lot.
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I am a photographer and can say that many professional family photos are edited like this one has been. Face, hand, and other swaps are common, especially when wiggly kids are involved. It is likely just routine editing and nothing more.
— Sara Srinivasan ???? (@saracole) March 11, 2024
Based on how hard it is to get 3 kids looking in the same direction… I’m guessing this image was a composite. Likely to correct poses, expressions, etc.
Pretty much all the issues with it are consistent with “slightly rushed photoshop composite” rather than anything nefarious.
— Gregory Wild-Smith (@GregWildSmith) March 10, 2024
The Truth is Revealed
Everything came to an end when Princess Kate posted this statement on Kensington Palace social media.
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
— The Prince and Princess of Wales (@KensingtonRoyal) March 11, 2024
Just kidding, nothing ended. The conspiracy theories are still going strong and people are claiming this statement is fake, but I won’t get into that.
“Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing,” Kate Middleton said.
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She apologised for the confusion and signed off as “C”, for Catherine.
So, we now know that Kate Middleton decided to dabble a little in photo editing. What we don’t know for sure, however, is when exactly the picture was taken or if it is a composite of several pictures.
Many are speculating that this photo was an attempt to stop conspiracy theories about Kate Middleton’s post-operation recovery. It seems the photo had the opposite effect, though.
The photo has caused more and more people to be invested in the debacle, sending many down a rabbit hole.
“Kill Notification”
Being the first photo of Kate Middleton in a week, many national newspapers and websites used the photo posted by Kensington Palace in their articles.
However, on the same day, five photo agencies retracted the image over concerns that it had been “manipulated”.
That day, the Associated Press (AP) also issued a “kill notification” – an industry term used to make a retraction. AP said: “At closer inspection it appears that the source has manipulated the image. No replacement photo will be sent.”
Should we take Kensington Palace’s word and assume all is good, or is there actually something else going on?
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We’ll leave that to the internet detectives and theorists.
Holy shit, I just did this myself and it’s a pixel perfect fit. Genuinely it’s 100% that this is the vogue cover photo photoshopped in.
Source: https://t.co/ff7cZc74Bn https://t.co/57BrLHtkxv pic.twitter.com/xO3KpUnfNB
— Paul Lomax (@PaulLomax) March 11, 2024
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