Princess Diana's Brother Worries About "Truth" Amid Kate Middleton Conspiracy Theories
A photo of the late Queen Elizabeth II is getting royally scrutinized.
One week after Kate Middleton admitted to editing a family photo shared on U.K. Mother's Day, Getty Images addressed a 2022 picture the Princess of Wales took of the monarch with some of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren over its appearance.
In an editor's note, the photo agency wrote the image of the queen and the children "has been digitally enhanced at source."
Kate and Prince William's official Instagram account shared the photo in April 2023 in honor of what would have been Elizabeth's 97th birthday.
The image—which the post noted was taken by Kate at Balmoral the summer before—showed the queen sitting on a couch while she was surrounded by 10 of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, including the Wales' kids Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis; Zara and Mike Tindall's trio Mia Tindall, Lena Tindall and Lucas Tindall; Peter and Autumn Phillips' daughters Savannah Phillips and Isla Phillips; and Prince Edward and Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh's children Lady Louise Windsor and James, Earl of Wessex.
photosThe Order of Succession to the British Throne
But after closer inspection, some viewers called out a few abnormalities in the snapshot that appeared to be editing errors. For instance, NBC News' London photo editor Max Butterworth pointed out that certain areas on the couch look misaligned or uneven in the image. Butterworth also noted that part of Louis' cheek appears to be taken out and covered in black in the picture and that there is also a dark area behind George's neckline.
E! News has reached out to Getty Images and Buckingham Palace for comment but has yet to hear back. However, the palace told NBC News it's not commenting on the photo.
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Getty Images' note about this photo comes after the agency, the Associated Press and Agence France-Presse pulled the picture of Kate and her children that she shared on Mother's Day.
"Making a doctored photo available for distribution to the world's media is a serious breach of trust," AFP news director Phil Chetwynd told NBC News in an email, going on to criticize Kensington Palace. "The palace was a known and trusted source for handout pictures" but "we cannot say they are a trusted source for handout pictures" after what has occurred.
And while he said the agency "still require further explanations" about the image, he expressed how they hope they "could rebuild this trust over time."
Meanwhile, Kate—who's mostly been keeping private after Kensington Palace announced in mid-January that she underwent abdominal surgery—has expressed how she's sorry for the puzzlement around the photo.
"Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing," she wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, March 11. "I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused."
To read more royal news from this year, keep scrolling.
(E! and NBC News are both part of the NBCUniversal family).