What a rollercoaster of emotions this past weekend! I was in Tesco on Sunday – surrounded by people buying last minute tulips for Mother’s Day – when I checked my phone.
Stopped. Looked again and then it sounded happy: ‘Yays!’ And: ‘Look, she’s fine!’ And, ‘Oh thank God.’
I rushed home to study the picture of Kate and her children, released to show the world that she is fine and getting better. But then… Hmm.
I went outside to stare at trees. Flower, yes, but no leaves. Another look at the snap. Her expression was slightly off. A little too bland and a little also happy.
I had expected, after a few months off and lots of speculation, a half smile, something a little wry.
The family photo of the Welsh, released on Sunday to mark Mother’s Day, had several irregularities that observers were quick to pick up on
And why was Louis in a Christmas sweater? Didn’t the floor look pretty shabby?
Twitter (now X) exploded, but I refuse to call the people who aired their concerns ‘trolls’.
We’re not the bad guys here. We are worried citizens, desperate for crumbs of comfort about our favorite royal, our top person.
By enlarging the image on our phone screens, we even beat the official news agencies by detecting the anomalies in that image.
Ordinary people, worried and wondering why, if the photo really has been doctored, then William couldn’t just take a bloody ordinary family photo on his phone and post it!
We all do it many times a day. We didn’t want or expect a perfectly posed shot, just a little thing that stopped us from worrying. And we’d been worried ever since that woman was put in a car, driven by Kate’s mother, last week? I didn’t sleep at all.
25 years ago, when I had just been appointed editor-in-chief of a glossy magazine, I sat in a photographer’s studio and put my first cover to bed. At the next computer, someone was working on a rival cover. I watched in amazement as a Hollywood star’s nose was removed and a better, more streamlined one put in place. Wow!
That was the moment I realized that people could be tricked by sorcery – and possibly with potentially disastrous consequences. Even before the age of rampant social media, I could see the flashing warning signs of what lay ahead.
I realized then that young women will starve themselves and get cosmetic surgery on the flimsy premise of a lie that wants to achieve a perfection portrayed on a magazine cover that does not exist in nature.
Remember Kate Winslet’s furore over a GQ cover where her legs were made longer and slimmer digitally?
As an editor, I called for dragon marks of authenticity to be placed on images to prohibit any retouching. But of course I was ignored. And now look where we are. A global scandal over a royal photo that leading photo agencies were so concerned they felt they had to pull.
Given what is possible with artificial intelligence and digital trickery today, it is not even more important for the Royal Family and its minions to be authentic and transparent in all their dealings with the public and the press, as we all pay for their palaces and their privacy?
It’s such a blunder, so disastrous for our faith in the monarchy and I think Kate has once again been badly let down by the Palace media operation and advisers.
The AFP news agency was among those to retract the image over concerns it had been doctored
The palace was forced to react when the PA followed other agencies this morning and retracted the photo
The very first statement when she was admitted to the London Clinic seemed genuine and heartfelt. Realizing the attention and speculation her disappearance from the public would cause, the Princess deliberately put our minds at ease in a kind and thoughtful way: ‘The Princess of Wales appreciates the interest this statement will create…’ And, ‘ She wants to apologize…’
Since then nothing. No updates beyond the bland and meaningless, allowing the distasteful speculation about her health and the state of her marriage to spread on social media and in the foreign press – the New York Times and American Vogue – to ponder.
Why couldn’t they have just released a mother’s day picture of Kate from the coronation, eg. with a little note from her? That would have been fine. We don’t expect her to wear makeup during her break. Now we think: did she even though write the message that accompanied the controversial snap?
And more. Why were there as many as 16 anomalies in the picture? Was the picture an old Christmas picture, simply recycled? The kids certainly look as hysterical and excited as they would have on Christmas Day.
Why wasn’t an accredited photographer with decades of professional standing sent in to take the picture? Was she too sick for that?
The palace is clearly no longer to be trusted, given what happened on Monday morning when an official tweet from Kensington Palace finally arrived.
‘Like many amateur photographers, I occasionally experiment with editing. I would like to express my apologies for any confusion…’ It is signed with a ‘C’.
What??!! But Kate is not an ‘amateur’, she is an experienced photographer (she is, after all, a patron of the Royal Photographic Society). And it was William who took it! She is a perfectionist and would never do a bad job at anything!
Now I won’t accuse KP of lying. But I think the palace, not the princess, treats the general public with contempt. The palace thinks we are all stupid and will never question anything the Welsh say.
I’m sure Kate, as a young, media-savvy, empathetic person who never puts a foot wrong, never gets caught with the wrong expression, or wearing something that doesn’t quite fit or is creased, wouldn’t make a mistake such as. this.
I believe she had no hand in this picture, or any mistakes that were made after.
What we do know is that this debacle is fueling even more speculation — even that she’s refusing to cooperate with the palace.
Whatever is going on, I can only imagine Kate’s distress, her shock, her anger. And whoever is responsible must be fired. Today.