[imagesource:princeofwales]

Folks all over the world have been speculating about the princess’s recent absence from the public eye.

The Royal Family announced in January that Kate Middleton was having a planned abdominal surgery in London; after a few weeks in the hospital, she was discharged, and the family reported she was still recovering but doing well.

But it’s been more than a month since Middleton has been home, and she still hasn’t made any public appearances — for a member of the Royal Family, that’s not normal.

There was that ‘leaked’ paparazzi picture of her driving in a car with her mom, but that was eaten up and spat out as a dubious PR stunt to try and convince the public that the princess was just fine. At this point, the conspiracy theories about her actual well-being were bouncing off the virtual wall, and Buckingham Palace did very little to quell the doubt.

Then, a photo taken by Prince William for Mother’s Day – the first official pic of Catherine to be released by Kensington Palace since her surgery in January – has caused all those already wild conspiracy theories about where Kate is to go rogue.

There’s something odd about the photo – besides four people staring directly into your soul and smiling at you – which can only mean it was manipulated in one way, shape, or form.

Thank you for your kind wishes and continued support over the last two months.

Wishing everyone a Happy Mother’s Day. C

📸 The Prince of Wales, 2024 pic.twitter.com/6DywGBpLLQ

— The Prince and Princess of Wales (@KensingtonRoyal) March 10, 2024

The BBC reported that a major UK news agency, PA, became the fifth picture service to ‘kill’ (industry term for withdraw) this photo of the Princess of Wales and her children over concerns about the image being ‘manipulated’.

Earlier, Getty Images, AFP, Reuters and Associated Press pulled the photo – noting an “inconsistency in the alignment of Princess Charlotte’s left hand” – concluding that it did not meet their editorial guidelines.

Royal expert Amanda Matta, who does daily analysis of the palace on TikTok, points out all the elements that potentially prove this photo was enhanced in some way:

@matta_of_fact Did the #Palace PHOTOSHOP this snapshot of #PrincessKate and the Wales kids? 👑☕️ Let’s sip some #royaltea and talk about it. #katemiddleton #willandkate #princessofwales #katemiddletonmissing #princelouis #princesscharlotte #princegeorgr #photoshopfail #royalfamily #royals #royalty #royaltea #britishroyals #britishroyalfamily #royalexpert #royalnews #royalupdate #royalscandal #royalgossip #royaldrama #whereiskate #greenscreen ♬ Emotional talk BGM that does not disturb the voice(1367878) – Burning Man

The photo, designed to cool the conversation around the Princess of Wales’s recovery, has instead revved all the rumours into high gear again, with a spun-up conspiracy that the entire image was a synthetic psyop created by Buckingham Palace.

Royal photographer Ian Lloyd told BBC Breakfast that editing of photos was “not unusual”, saying: “It has gone on in photography, and royal photography particularly, since the dawn of photography.”

But he said the withdrawing of a photo “was definitely new”, saying: “Clearly somebody feels they have gone a step too far and they’ve withdrawn the photograph.”

The world is heaving in mistrust right now. As AI-powered image generation becomes mainstream, we’re losing our grip on reality, notes TechCrunch.

In a time when any image can be fake, how can we know what’s actually real?

The Duchess of Cambridge herself had to address the controversy, admitting her mistake:

“Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing,” Middleton wrote in a statement. “I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused.”

It doesn’t help that the Royal Family won’t quash the conspiracy theories by just releasing the unedited photo.

Sky News notes too that this debacle is less about rogue conspiracy theories and more about serious questions around trust and transparency.

It’s been extraordinary to see Kate’s team fall into the fake media debate, and at a time when there is already speculation about the princess’s health, the doctored photo means there will now be more scrutiny on all pictures they put out.

We’re getting increasingly better at spotting the deep fakes and AI-generated nonsense from the real, but our discerning eyes are also far more critical and quick to jump into suspicion.

Meanwhile, AI and deepfakes just keep getting better.

[sources:bbc&techcrunch&aljazeera]