After news dropped yesterday that a photo of Kate Middleton and her kids released by the palace had been “manipulated”, online conspiracy theorists were vindicated. Now, there are claims that Middleton’s entire face had been photoshopped onto the image from a previous Vogue shoot the Princess Of Wales did in 2016. Or, at the very least, the photo was taken earlier than the royal family claimed.
On X — formerly known as Twitter —The Daily Mirror’s social media editor Ruby Naldrett found her tweet go viral when she shared her theory.
“My analysis of the Kate Middleton photo saga is that they took her face from the Vogue cover she did years ago and edited it in,” she wrote.
After over 3 million people saw Ruby’s tweet, the hypothesis started to gain some traction.
“That’s why her hair is blurry and translucent from them enhancing where the hat flattened it,” another X user theorised.
However, others think that the Vogue cover theory is a bit farfetched. You know, considering it is a photo of Kate, with the same smile, and ultimately the same face.
“If I were going to repurpose a photo to trick the public, I would pick a photo the public had not previously seen from my personal collection of family photos, not from the cover of a famous magazine. That’s just sloppy,” replied another user.
“The lighting is completely different. Find it hard to believe that the same person who botched that Photoshop job was able to change the light on her face like that,” another wrote.
On TikTok, another user had a completely different theory.
American TikToker Ally Naston did a deep-dive into the clothes that Kate, Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis were wearing in the photo. She believes that the photo was taken back in November 2023, on the same day that Kate and the kids volunteered at The Baby Bank in Maidenhead.
Thanks to the many websites that document every item of clothing Kate has ever worn and where to buy them, Ally was able to compare the outfits in the photos. Looking at the photos (which you can see HERE or in the video below), Ally theorised that they were wearing the exact same outfits but they had been photoshopped to appear different.
While it sounds farfetched at first, she makes a compelling argument — especially due to the multitude of Photoshop mistakes and inconsistencies.
It’s also giving Elle Woods in Legally Blonde energy.
On Monday, the official Instagram page of Kate and William shared an apology for the Photoshop scandal.
“Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing,” Kate (?!?!?!?!) wrote.
“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.”
Girl, if you want to squash the rumours do a fucking video otherwise people will continue to think you are either missing, dead, getting a Brazillian Butt Lift or some other wild theory.
Then again, this conspiracy now has a life of its own. I reckon the only thing that will see it end for good is when Miss Kate returns from her staycation and pops up at an event, or something.
