Sunday was Mother’s Day in the UK, and as I said in yesterday’s post, I believe Kensington Palace’s plan always involved releasing “the first photo” of the Princess of Wales since her mysterious abdominal surgery in January. Nevermind that odd paparazzi photo of Kate and Carole Middleton in Windsor last Monday, Kensington Palace barged ahead and released a photo of Kate and her three children and they expected that to be the end of months of speculation. They expected people to fall all over themselves with relief that Kate was well enough to wear jeggings and sit up in a chair.
The problems with the photo were evident immediately – many questioned when the photo was taken, many questioned Kate’s lack of rings (she wasn’t wearing Big Blue or her wedding band) and most of all, the pic was obviously Photoshopped. There were just too many inconsistencies, weird blurs and everyone’s hands just looked weird. Some even claimed that the pic might even be AI (I doubt it, but who knows). Well, last night, after hours of online speculation over the photo, several major news agencies took the extraordinary measure of “killing” the image.
It was meant to be a wholesome image to celebrate Mother’s Day in the UK, but a photo of Kate Middleton and her children has ended in controversy for the Prince and Princess of Wales.
Four major news agencies — Associated Press, Getty Images, Reuters, and AFP — have pulled the photo from their libraries amid concerns it was manipulated by Kensington Palace.
AP issued a “kill notification” for clients, telling those who use its service that on “closer inspection it appears that the source has manipulated the image.” Reuters said it was deleting the picture after a post-publication review.
Do you know how major it is for even one new agency – let alone FOUR major agencies – to kill an image provided by Kensington Palace? This wasn’t “someone had qualms that a sleeve had been Photoshopped.” This is AFP, Getty, the AP and Reuters all saying that they can’t trust anything about the photo, that Kensington Palace is not a credible source for photos of the Princess of Wales. Besides that, what was meant as a big stunt to “prove” that Kate is fine has ended up fueling even more global speculation about Kate’s health and whereabouts. Kensington Palace is a f–king clownshow and William’s new private secretary doesn’t know what they hell he’s doing. It’s the blind leading the blind over there. As I’m writing this very early Monday morning, KP still hasn’t made a statement or explained WTF is going on. They’re panicking. Even their most loyal rota members are calling them out too. Also: Prince Huevo is due to appear at the Commonwealth Day service in several hours. Do you think he’ll cancel? I bet he does.
Update: Rebecca English says that Press Association has killed the image too, and that they (and other news outlets) sought “urgent clarification” from Kensington Palace on the image, but KP didn’t respond. My God.
And now this from @AFP 👇
“MANDATORY KILL-DUE TO AN EDITORIAL ISSUE THIS PHOTO NUMBER 000_34L82NW BRITAIN-ROYALS BY PRINCE OF WALES HAS BEEN WITHDRAWN FROM AFP SYSTEMS AND MAY NO LONGER BE USED IN ANY MANNER. PLEASE IMMEDIATELY REMOVE IT FROM ALL YOUR ONLINE SERVICES, STOP USING” pic.twitter.com/CXYA6cp2gQ
— Chris Ship (@chrisshipitv) March 10, 2024
I suspect this was not the headline Kensington Palace was hoping to get from the normally supportive @Telegraph on Monday morning:
“Photo from Palace was doctored, say agencies”. pic.twitter.com/W7JxIgdlQA
— Chris Ship (@chrisshipitv) March 10, 2024
Photo courtesy of Kensington Palace.
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