Kate Middleton's Car Photo Continues To Add To The Photoshop Scandal

2024 has been a pretty eventful year for the royal family thus far, and not in a good way. January brought with it a slew of royal health concerns. First, Buckingham Palace announced that Princess Catherine had undergone an unspecified abdominal surgery and that she would be spending two weeks in the hospital post-op to recover. Then came the real shocker: She wasn't set to return to public duties until after Easter. With not much information to go on, wild theories about Princess Catherine's absence have been doing the rounds since.

Royal pundits had barely wrapped their heads around Catherine's health saga before King Charles III presented them with one of his own. On January 17, he announced that he had to undergo a corrective procedure for an enlarged prostate. The palace assured the public that the condition was benign. The stories about Charles' health condition were just starting to dwindle when the king made another shocking announcement: The king had been diagnosed with an undisclosed form of cancer. This news momentarily made some forget about the fact that Catherine hadn't been seen or heard from since Christmas 2023. Alas, when Catherine did finally make an "appearance" in a photograph the palace released to the press for Mother's Day in the U.K., prominent news outlets and photo agencies like the Associated Press, Reuters, AFP, and Getty Images soon issued a kill notification, saying that the photograph was significantly altered. The media tempest that ensued is one the royals will have a hard time living down.

Altering photographs isn't exactly a crime, but making significant edits to an image that, let's be honest, is supposed to serve as proof of life to the public, was a dire error. After the photograph of her with her three children was pulled by news agencies, Princess Catherine confessed to editing the Mother's Day picture. She stated on X, formerly known as Twitter, "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." The tweet raised more than a few eyebrows.

The more you look at the photograph, the more bizarre it becomes. Professional studio photographer Joscelynne Feinstein pointed out all the blunders to Today. "Charlotte, to me, is 100% a Photoshop fail. You can see how it has kind of been cut out and her wrist seems to not be part of her hand," she explained. As for how this inconsistency occurred, professional studio photographer Naomi White said that it's possible that Catherine "switched out the original part of the image (of Charlotte) for another one [and] forgot to align the place where we see the old sleeve."

White also pointed out that Catherine and Charlotte's hair was blurry in odd places, which might indicate that Catherine tried to tame some flyaways in Photoshop. White observed that the color of the windowpane in the background also appears to have been altered.

Everyone, even Princess Catherine, has the right to decide whether or not they want to share their medical conditions. Catherine has decided not to, and while there's nothing wrong with that, royal author Tina Brown noted on "CBS Mornings" that the palace has been tripping all over itself when it comes to handling information related to the princess. "The kind of hiding that they're doing, it seems excessive to me," Brown said. 

The palace's effort to control which details are released to the public has only drummed up more attention. The question the press and royal pundits alike are pondering is why the institution has refused to release the unedited Mother's Day photograph. Brown said what everyone has been thinking all along: "I'm deeply skeptical that there was an 'original.' I think it's a jigsaw of different pictures."

Brown added that the public saw the image as a health update and it was only natural that royal watchers and the press would pay closer attention to any clues about the princess' health. "[Kensington Palace is] digging themselves deeper into this mess, frankly, that they've created," Brown said. "I think all she [Catherine] needs to do is wave from a car window... and smile." Funnily enough, a picture like this surfaced days later, but it caused even more controversy (more on that later).

When you are provided with doctored pictures from what should be a reliable source, you don't exactly trust them again. This is the conundrum Kensington Palace is facing right now. Royal historian Ed Owens told the Associated Press that, while social media is a great tool in the royal household's arsenal when it comes to showing the world what they want it to see, it comes with risks. "They have also given over significant power to the end user. And that end user ... desires greater insight, greater intimate detail about what exactly has been going on behind closed doors," Owens explained. The palace's silence when it comes to health updates about the future queen has only served to fuel rumors and conspiracy theories, and now that Catherine's first appearance, so to speak, is embroiled in so much controversy, those rumors have escalated out of control. "The most serious issue for the Princess of Wales and the monarchy in light of the photoshopped image is the erosion of trust and credibility," Stephanie Baker, a sociology expert, told the Associated Press.

Royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams told Business Insider that the whole photo scandal is "embarrassing" and "unprecedented," adding, "[It] has fueled speculation it set out to avoid. It's undesirable and affects their credibility." Royal commentator Jack Royston agreed. "[The] palace will now lose the respect and trust of a very sizable portion of Britain," he said.

Few can forget about Princess Catherine's controversial uncle, Gary Goldsmith, who has caused more than one scandal in the press. The man has even admitted that he likes to stir the pot. "Winding people up is probably my favorite hobby. Every part of me is just riddled with mischief and danger," Goldsmith once told CNN. When he was selected as a contestant on "Celebrity Big Brother," royals were probably a little nervous about the beans he might spill on the show.

Fellow contestant Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu, a former "Love Island" winner, wasted no time in asking Goldsmith about his niece. Instead of simply replying that he couldn't comment, Goldsmith decided to be as cryptic as possible. "[Catherine] doesn't want to talk about that. There's a kind of code of etiquette," Goldsmith said (via Variety). While it would've been great for the royals if he'd just stopped talking right then, he didn't. "If it's announced, I'll give you an opinion. She's getting the best care in the world," he stated. "She'll be back. Of course she will." Cue a thousand rumors about what "it" might refer to. 

After Goldsmith was evicted from "Celebrity Big Brother," he went on "Good Morning Britain" to talk about his time on the TV series and, of course, his niece. He called the Mother's Day photo "beautiful" and admitted that he hadn't spoken to his sister since his departure from the reality show. Needless to say, he isn't entirely in the royal loop.

Yall!? Has no one else noticed that the most recent photo of #KateMiddleton in the car… the bricks in the car windows, don’t appear to match the bricks outside the car…

Is this another photoshopped picture… can anyone find the original they clipped it from? #KateGate WTF?! pic.twitter.com/D730OsfJCI

— Indomitable (@NdomitableNegro) March 12, 2024

Kensington Palace really dug a deep hole for itself this time around. Every picture of Princess Catherine that has been released since the Mother's Day photograph has been met with intense scrutiny. On March 11, Prince William was photographed in the back seat of a car with Catherine next to him. Well, it appears to be Catherine, at least. Her face is turned away from the cameras and eagle-eyed fans spotted inconsistencies in the brick wall pictured beside the car in the photograph.

As it turns out, for some reason, the grout in between the bricks that can be seen from within the car looks wildly different from that of the bricks outside of the car. Many royal pundits cried Photoshop on this picture as well. "Yall!? Has no one else noticed that the most recent photo of #KateMiddleton in the car... the bricks in the car windows, don't appear to match the bricks outside the car...Is this another photoshopped picture?" one fan asked on X, formerly known as Twitter. It is a bit dodgy, we'll admit.

Jim Bennett, the paparazzo who took the picture, insists that the photograph is genuine. "We don't change our photos in Photoshop other than adjusting the light levels if necessary," he told the New York Post. And apparently, the brick wall in question does indeed look different at car level than it does for the rest of the building.

Thanks to Princess Catherine not looking at the camera in the photograph taken of her and Prince William in their car, the internet has gone down another well-trodden rabbit hole. Some speculate that the woman next to William wasn't Catherine at all, but Rose Hanbury, the Marchioness of Cholmondeley. Affair rumors have hounded Prince William and Hanbury for years now and have been resurfacing amid Catherine's photo scandal. "Either Kate Middleton turned her face out of spite because the palace said she'd be gone until Easter and it is not Easter yet or it was Rose Hanbury," one royal fan posted to X, formerly known as Twitter. Others quickly latched onto the theory.

Some royal watchers have gone as far as to suggest that Catherine's extended absence is due to her and William getting a divorce because of Hanbury. The fact that Catherine isn't wearing her wedding ring in the doctored Mother's Day photo has fueled these rumors. "It's true that she doesn't always wear the diamond and sapphire engagement ring, for obvious reasons. But her wedding band? When has the Princess of Wales ever been seen without that?" Daily Mail columnist Sarah Vine wrote in an article that made the outlet's front page. Newsweek noted that it's about time Catherine or William say something to counter the rumors, or the mainstream media might just start to assume that their silence is an admission.

Don't think it's Kate...
Do you ? pic.twitter.com/DjwmrdxpCM

— Peter Darwin (@scotchnutz) March 5, 2024

In what was Princess Catherine's first public sighting since her surgery, she was photographed driving shotgun with her mother, Carole Middleton. TMZ first posted the photograph on March 4 as proof that Catherine was alive and well. Since the Mother's Day photo scandal and rumors that the picture of Catherine and Prince William in their car was also somehow altered, royal watchers returned to this photograph to take a closer look.

Jayme Poisson, the host of CBC's news podcast "Front Burner," spoke to former BuzzFeed royal correspondent Ellie Hall about the picture, and it turns out that, apparently, not much can be found about the image on the internet because the palace told U.K. outlets that it's an unauthorized photograph and should therefore be kept out of the press. Then there's the issue of Catherine's appearance. "Kate in the passenger seat doesn't look like a Kate that we've seen very often. Her face is a little full, she's wearing sunglasses, and people immediately start saying, 'Oh, that's not Kate,'" Hall said. 

When the photo first dropped, some X, formerly known as Twitter, users got out their magnifying glasses. "Don't think it's Kate...Do you?" one fan tweeted. Another eagle-eyed pundit pointed out on X that the car's front and back tires were in the exact same position and that this was a bit odd. Another wrote, "It's AI. They've taken a pic of Carole Middleton, driving on her own, and added an AI generated pic next to her. The lighting on 'Kate's' face is wrong."

Spanish journalist Concha Calleja really stirred things up when she claimed that the palace was lying about Princess Catherine's well-being. The Times first reported on her claims that Catherine had a near-death experience after undergoing unspecified abdominal surgery. Calleja alleged that a palace aide provided her with all this secret information. "The doctors had to take drastic decisions at that moment because of the complications that arose. The decision was to put her (Kate) in an induced coma. They had to intubate her," Calleja claimed. "There were serious complications that they didn't expect because the operation went well, but the postoperative period didn't go so well." Calleja also alleged that Catherine had been feeling unwell for quite some time before she was admitted to the hospital and that the surgery was a result of whatever the cause of her ill health was.

While these are shocking allegations, there is no proof whatsoever to support them at this stage. The palace, which usually doesn't comment on wild theories, actually clapped back at Calleja's clams through a source of their own, who told The Times that Calleja's story is nothing but balderdash: "No attempt was made by that journalist to fact-check anything that she said with anyone in the household. It's fundamentally, totally made-up, and I'll use polite English here: it's absolutely not the case." To believe or not to believe Calleja's claims, that is the question. For now, all we can do is wait.