Another day, another round of speculation surrounding the Royal Family... well, Kate Middleton in particular!
The Princess of Wales has been absent from the public eye since late December due to health reasons.
Kensington Palace previously explained that the 42-year-old had undergone planned abdominal surgery and had since been released from hospital, adding that the Princess wishes to keep her personal information private.
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However, social media has been insisting there is more than meets the eye when it comes to the whereabouts and wellbeing of Kate.
In an attempt to put the rumour mill to rest, Kate's reps released a statement which read: “Kensington Palace made it clear in January the timelines of the Princess’ recovery and we’d only be providing significant updates. That guidance stands."
The tight-lipped attempt of an explanation seemed to have the opposite effect on online sleuths who continued to suggest that something strange was taking place, fuelled by the lack of communication from Kate herself.
But yesterday, on Mother’s Day, a photo was posted to the Princess’ personal social media accounts, purporting to have been taken by Prince William himself.
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The caption was reportedly written by Kate, reading: “Thank you for your kind wishes and continued support over the last two months.
"Wishing everyone a Happy Mother's Day. C."
In an unpredictably wild turn of events, it wasn’t long before it was revealed that all was not as it seemed with the image.
The photograph was pulled from use by a number of global press agencies, including AP, AFP and Reuters, after ‘huge errors’ were spotted in the photo, suggesting it had been 'manipulated'.
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These errors included an area near Charlotte's sleeve that seems to have been edited, bizarrely patchy window panes (and a lack of reflection in the window itself), Kate wearing no wedding ring and her zip stopping part way down her jacket.
Obviously, this huge and very strange blunder only added fuel to the fire.
This morning, Middleton released a statement on social media which addressed the scandal.
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She penned: “Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing. I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused.
"I hope everyone celebrating had a very happy Mother’s Day."
Not everybody was convinced with this explanation, though.
One commenter wrote on X: “The idea what Kate Middleton is sat over a laptop using photoshop to try to create the perfect picture of her and her kids, while apparently recovering from major surgery, is almost as laughable as the original photo itself.”
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Following on from this shocking admission, Brits everywhere are making the same request to the Royal Family.
The general wish is that the public are allowed to see the original, unedited photo to put minds at ease - as some people insist that the photo is AI-generated.
Broadcaster Piers Morgan urged: “The Palace should release the unedited photo of Kate & the kids asap. If it’s just a small bit of harmless retouching gone wrong, nobody will care.
"If they don’t release the original pic, the conspiracy theories they were trying to kill, will get way worse.."
Another online commenter asked: "So post the original, unedited photo? Or does it not exist?"
As for whether or not we can expect to see the original any time soon, we shouldn’t be holding our breath as the Palace have since said they will not be reissuing the original photograph.
The plot thickens...
Featured Image Credit: Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images/Kensington PalaceTopics: Royal Family, Kate Middleton, UK News