A photo taken by Kate Middleton of the late Queen Elizabeth II with her grandchildren was reportedly "digitally" altered, as per a photo agency that examined the snap after the Princess of Wales' Mother's Day portrait scandal. The portrait, taken at Balmoral in August 2022, shows the late monarch posing with eight of her 12 grandchildren.
The portrait was taken by Kate just weeks before Queen Elizabeth II's death and was released by Buckingham Palace on April 21 last year to commemorate what would have been Queen Elizabeth II's 97th birthday. However, the photo is now facing backlash after it was revealed that the photo was heavily photoshopped.
Another Photo Bites the Dust
Global picture agency Getty Images has now said that the heartwarming image was "digitally enhanced at source," following a review conducted in the wake of the recent controversy surrounding the Princess of Wales editing a Mother's Day photo of herself with her three children.
The photograph appears to have several irregularities, as first reported by The Telegraph.
One of the most noticeable discrepancies is seen on the side of the queen's tartan skirt, where the plaid pattern does not align and appears to have been cut and repositioned in the image.
The green couch on which the queen is seated also displays a similar misalignment next to great-granddaughter Savannah Phillips and below Prince George's hand. A patch of black is also visible behind George's shirt collar, where the pattern of his cousin's dress should be.
A dark spot beside Prince Louis' ear is also apparent, along with a jagged outline revealing other colors behind his silhouette.
Another jagged and random strip of color can be spotted directly next to the arm of the couch.
A spokesman for Getty Images said: "Getty Images has reviewed the image in question and placed an editor's note on it, stating that the image has been digitally enhanced at source."
Another Embarrassment for Kate
Suspicions about the authenticity of the portrait were first raised last year by tech CEO Christopher Bouzy, who said he believed that it had been photoshopped. This revelation adds to the embarrassment for Kate who was reportedly "very distressed by the fallout" from her Mother's Day photo.
Last week, major news wires issued a "kill" alert for the photo posted by Middleton of herself and her three children after realizing that it had been manipulated.
The princess later admitted to editing the portrait.
"Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing," she said in a statement posted on X last Monday. "I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused."
Kensington Palace shared the Mother's Day photo amid concerns about Middleton's health following her abdominal surgery.
However, the manipulated picture only heightened speculation about her whereabouts, as she had not been seen in public for several weeks following the surgery, fueling conspiracy theories.
Another notable, albeit unrelated, aspect of the Queen's photo is the absence of Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet from the group of her grandchildren. The pair, children of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, live across the ocean in California and were not visiting the queen in Scotland that summer.
