Catherine's skills as an amateur photographer are coming under further scrutiny in the wake of her Mother's Day portrait debacle. Now, another photo she took is coming into question and is apparently leading Getty Images to review its brochure photography policy of hers.
On Monday, Getty Images issued a statement saying that a photograph of Queen Elizabeth II and 10 of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren (said to have been taken by the Princess of Wales) was “digitally enhanced.”
The image, posted in April 2023 on Wales' joint Instagram account on what would have been Elizabeth's 97th birthday, showed the late queen sitting on a sofa and flanked by her heirs. The photo was said to have been taken at her Balmoral estate in Scotland in the summer of 2022.
“Getty Images reviewed the image in question and placed an editor's note on it, stating that the image has been digitally enhanced at the source,” a spokesperson for the agency told the Telegraph.
The Telegraph also noted “several inconsistencies” within the image, including a mismatched pattern on one part of the queen's skirt, issues with one girl's hair and five others.
In a separate statement to The Times, a spokesperson for the photo agency said: “Getty Images is conducting a review of the submitted images and, in accordance with its editorial policy, is placing an editor's note on the images where the source has suggested that they could be digitally enhanced. .”
It is unclear whether Getty Images will review all of the photos submitted or just those provided by the palace. The agency spokesman declined to comment further.
A Kensington Palace spokesperson did not immediately respond Tuesday to The Times' request for comment.
The Getty Images statement is the latest development in the so-called Kate-Gate and the case of pop culture's “missing” princess. Speculation about the health and whereabouts of the 42-year-old royal has increased since Kensington Palace announced in mid-January that Catherine had undergone planned abdominal surgery and that she would not return to royal duties until later. of Easter. Along with the announcement of King Charles III's prostate procedure and the unprecedented revelation about cancer, the internet has been abuzz with rumors.
Instead of transparent updates on Kate's health that demand proof of life, conspiracy theories and wild conjecture have engulfed the princess, her husband Prince William and the British royal family.
A flashpoint came last week with the revelation that the palace had shared an amateur-edited photograph of Catherine and her three children to mark Mother's Day in the UK. That led at least five international photo and news agencies, including Getty Images and the Associated Press, to issue retractions and “takedown” notices for the doctored image. (Instagram, where the Waleses originally posted the photo and where it remains, also included a “doctored photo” disclaimer in the March 10 post, and X, formerly Twitter, followed suit.)
The palace finally issued an apology attributed to “C” for the “confusion” the image caused, but royal observers didn't believe it either. Rather than quieting the gossip swirling around the princess, the royal mistake further contributed to wild theories about her well-being and cast further doubt on the reliability of the palace as a source and the existence of the monarchy as a whole.
On Saturday, Catherine was seen in public for the first time since December, taking a casual shopping trip about a mile from her Adelaide Cottage home, the Sun reported. In the absence of a photo and video, the sighting was also immediately called into question, as were the images of her excursion when they finally arrived on Monday.
