How could the palace let Kate take the fall?
Not since the moon landing have there been so many conspiracies swirling around the authenticity of a photograph.
A simple family photo of Kate with her children, intended to quell rumors about her health and sanity, has been exposed as a fake, a fraud, a Frankenstein.
It’s the most epic photoshop mistake of the century. It’s also the biggest PR blunder for the Royals in years.
Hours after its release, news agencies around the world announced they were killing the photo because it was clearly fake — 16 errors and counting.
And instead of denying rumors about Kate’s health, the concerns have only been raised by what the inauthenticity of the photo could indicate: that she is so ill and releases a unedited picture was not an option.
Not since the moon landing have there been so many conspiracies swirling around the authenticity of a photograph. A simple family photo of Kate with her children, intended to quell rumors about her health and sanity, has been exposed as a fake, a fraud, a Frankenstein.
Rather than debunking rumors about Kate’s health, concerns have only been fueled by what the photo’s inauthenticity could indicate: that she is so ill that releasing an unedited photo was not an option.
Worst of all, it gave the cheerleaders for the Miserables of Montecito an opening which they took most distastefully.
Meghan, don’t you know, could never.
“This is not a mistake Meghan would ever make,” a source close to the Sussexes told Page Six.
Their stenographer Omid Scobie offered his unsolicited opinion on social media.
“With the palace’s long history of lying, covering up … it’s becoming increasingly difficult for the public to believe a word (and now a picture) they share,” he wrote.
Scobie went on to claim that it would be ‘an almost impossible task’ to regain the trust of the press and public, broken by this photoshop error.
The melodrama! As if Harry and Meghan are examples of trust and integrity.
Dear God.
Even as Kate suffers, this bitchy battle for transatlantic one-upmanship continues.
To compound this mess, the apology was issued on Monday – by Kate!
She fell on her sword and wrote a message that minimizes her skills and makes her sound like a shaky, silly woman rather than the dignified future queen that she is.
“Like many amateur photographers, I occasionally experiment with photo editing,” she wrote.
Let’s unpack the first line, shall we? Kate was trained in art history. She has been her family’s unofficial in-house photographer since her first child was born ten years ago.
It’s safe to assume that Kate understands composition, lighting, color theory and the like. But she is here reduced to calling herself a mere ‘amateur’ who ‘experimented’, and a bad one at that.
“I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photo we shared yesterday caused,” she continued.
Note that ‘we’. She didn’t do it alone. A release like this goes through many layers, through aides and private secretaries, and maybe even the king.
Worst of all, it gave the cheerleaders for the Miserables of Montecito an opening which they took most distastefully. “This is not a mistake Meghan would ever make,” a source close to the Sussexes told Page Six.
Their stenographer Omid Scobie offered his unsolicited opinion on social media, claiming it would be ‘an almost impossible task’ to regain the trust of the press and public, broken by this photoshop error. The melodrama! As if Harry and Meghan are examples of trust and integrity.
Compounding this mess was the apology issued on Monday – by Kate! She fell on her sword and wrote a message that minimizes her skills and makes her sound like a shaky, silly woman rather than the dignified future queen that she is.
It seems to me that someone would – should – have advised against releasing a fake photo. It also seems to me that this extremely bad idea could only have been carried out by someone who can never be told ‘no’.
So: Where is Prince William?
Why not he take the blame?
After all, this photo was taken by him.
Even if no one believed he was the one behind the sloppy photoshop – most of us certainly don’t believe it was Kate who was too unwell to drive or, according to William, even watch this year’s BAFTA- nominated films – he would have earned the world’s respect for standing up to his wife and taking the hits.
Instead, he remains silent.
Instead, Kate was dragged out yesterday, photographed sitting next to her husband in the back of a car, her face turned away from the camera and towards a brick wall.
That act read to me as defiance.
Kate has hardly put a foot wrong. She signed up for the job and has never shown anything but good humor towards her duties.
She has stood in front of the media hours after the birth and looked stunning.
But she clearly refused to play along for this photo shoot, one that is no doubt designed to be the “amateur” photo that has turned the world upside down.
As she should.
No one believes that Kate alone created this mess. Why should she have to give up more of her privacy, at a clearly vulnerable time, to right a wrong her husband should never have allowed?
After all, William has quite a sophisticated understanding of how the media works. It’s baked into his destiny, shaped by a mother who constantly manipulated the media.
There was no reason for Kate and William to travel together on Monday. Her car actually followed.
He was off to a Commonwealth service at Westminster Abbey and she was going to a private appointment – one that would have been a lot more private had she not joined him in that Range Rover.
Meanwhile, royal sources are putting forward an insulting, condescending narrative that poor, misguided Kate just didn’t understand what she was doing. And as well as being physically ill, Kate is now said to be distraught at single-handedly causing such disruption.
“Terrible” was how Kate felt about this, a royal source told the Telegraph. Her intention was only to make the picture ‘the best it can be’ but now feels that honesty is the ‘best policy’ and she must ‘own’.
It makes Kate sound like a simpleton. And there’s a hint of misogyny here too – the little woman who tried her best but made a mess.
Where is Prince William? Why didn’t he take the blame? Instead, Kate was dragged out yesterday, photographed sitting next to her husband in the back of a car, her face turned away from the camera and towards a brick wall. That act read to me as defiance.
Can anyone imagine Charles allowing Camilla to take the fall like that?
If William and Kate’s older children aren’t seeing this controversy online, they’re surely hearing about it at school – that their sick mother is to blame.
This is a disgrace.
Kate is the future of the crown. She is the Windsors’ most glittering asset, one who has reserves of global goodwill.
If the idea was that her popularity meant she could afford to take responsibility – wow. What a supreme miscalculation.
The image’s metadata shows that it was saved twice in Adobe Photoshop – highly sophisticated software that an ‘amateur’ like Kate would certainly not be able to navigate.
The first saved version was timestamped at 21:54 on Friday, March 8.
Does anyone think sick Kate really sat up at 10 at night messing with this?
In a rare 2020 interview, Kate talked about her approach to photography. Spoiler alert: It doesn’t match this heavily edited family photo.
“One of the great things about photography is that it really captures that moment, so it’s not stage setting, it’s not setting it up perfectly,” she said. ‘It’s not clearing your house away so you have the perfect studio setup. But it’s really capturing the moments that feel real to you.’
Kate has always given us, if not her real self, her best self.
William, of all people, should understand how difficult it is.
In her hour of need, it is up to the future king – not his ailing wife – to fix this.