A few days from to Mother’s Day photo and I have to admit I’m not the wiser what on earth is going on with the Prince and Princess of Wales.
Let’s start with the latter’s mea culpa, her admission that she was the one who edited the photo. Her statement, which was clearly intended to draw a line under the whole business, has if anything just added another layer to the millefeuille of conspiracies, raising far more questions than it answered.
At first, the idea of the princess hunched over an Apple Mac fiddling around with a family photo in Photoshop just seems so weird.
Isn’t she supposed to be recovering from stomach surgery? Doesn’t she have better things to do with her evenings? Besides, what could have been so wrong with a straight shot of her and the kids to warrant so much editing?
And while it needed a bit of retouching (most official photos these days have a little help from the filter fairies, after all), doesn’t Kensington Palace have a professional on hand to carry out such enhancements? I know King Charles wants a scaled down monarchy, but surely the royal purse can still stretch to decent tech support?
There is no doubt that the public has great affection for Kate and William and their children – and plenty of empathy for the challenges they face
No fewer than 12 changes are clearly identified, and there are questions about other aspects of it – including when it was actually taken. Some say November of last year – but that’s unclear from the metadata (digital information about an image, including details about the device used, plus location, dates and more), which only tells us when it had been edited. It all just seems so… well, amateur.
Stranger still, in my opinion, is that the one thing that really stands out about the photograph, the detail most likely to set tongues wagging, has been left untouched.
I am of course talking about the princess not wearing any of her rings. It is true that, for obvious reasons, she does not always wear the diamond and sapphire engagement ring. But her wedding band? When has the Princess of Wales ever been seen without it?
Now there could be a perfectly good medical reason for her not wearing it. As Dr. Martin Scurr explained in the Daily Mail, she could have been advised against it by her doctors in case her knuckles swell after the operation or as a result of certain medicines. Or maybe she’s lost a bit of weight, which isn’t uncommon after stomach surgery, and doesn’t want to risk it slipping off her finger.
Either way, if you were going to digitally change something about the image, wouldn’t this be it? Forget Charlotte’s sleeve, just put that wedding ring back on. If nothing else, to stop people putting two and two together to make five.
Especially since the prince hasn’t exactly been himself lately, not turning up as he did for the late King Constantine of Greece’s memorial service in St. George’s Chapel a few weeks ago, and canceled with less than an hour’s notice due to a ‘personal matter’.
This wasn’t just anyone, it was his godfather – and the prince’s name was on the order of service. Furthermore, the chapel is only a few minutes’ drive from his home in the grounds of Windsor Castle. How serious a ‘personal matter’ could it have been that he couldn’t get away for an hour or so?
No fewer than 12 alterations to the image have been clearly identified and there are questions about other aspects of it – including when it was taken, as seen in today’s Daily Mail
All of this makes the absence of the wedding ring in a photo, which the princess admittedly spent a lot of time processing even more. It makes it seem almost deliberate, a statement in itself. If it’s not there, could it be because she doesn’t want it there? It’s unbearable to think about.
The moment they left Windsor in the car together yesterday was certainly less than encouraging. They didn’t exactly look cheerful, she with her back to the camera in shadowy profile and he looking gloomily down at his papers.
Of course, all this could mean nothing. But it can also mean something. And that’s the real problem here. As much as I’d love to think that this, as is so often the case in life, is more cock-up than conspiracy, at every turn Kensington Palace’s combined kooky craftsmanship and, let’s be honest, the Prince’s demeanor and the Princess of Wales herself conspires to make one believe otherwise.
I say this not out of criticism, more out of genuine concern for the couple and their well-being. After all, life in the royal fishbowl is far from easy. The princess has clearly had a very nasty operation and it has come at the end of a very difficult and destabilizing period for both of them.
One should not underestimate the emotional burden – shared by the entire royal family – of losing their great matriarch, the late Queen. Add to that the King’s cancer diagnosis, and it has inevitably been an unsettling few months.
It also goes without saying that the stress on both of them as a result of the accusations brought against them by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex has been enormous, and the attacks on the Princess in particular have been particularly vicious.
It’s also worth remembering that on Kate’s side of the family, things haven’t been so easy either. Her parents’ company, Party Pieces, went into administration last year with more than £2.5m in debt. It will inevitably also have taken its toll.
Is it any wonder the princess is sick? The body has its own way of signaling when it has had enough.
So I’m not saying they don’t have good reason to feel a little uncombobulated or to act a little off. Just because you’re a royal doesn’t mean life is all diamonds and tiaras, far from it. And there’s no doubt that the public has a lot of love for them both and their children – and plenty of empathy for the challenges they face.
But the difficulty with the image is that it is actually a lie. Worse, it now looks like a lie designed to hide other lies, a classic example of the old adage: it’s not the crime that gets you, but the cover-up. And there’s only one way to put an end to it: come clean about what’s really going on – or risk drowning in a swamp of their own making.