The royal family has made little comment on the condition of Catherine, Princess of Wales, since she underwent surgery in mid-January and Kensington Palace has said she is unlikely to appear in public before Easter, WA Today reports.
The lack of updates and information, apart from a paparazzi snapshot on a US celebrity gossip site, has sparked a whole host of conspiracy theories on social media about her whereabouts.
So where is Catherine now? The mainstream British media have largely skirted the issue, trying to balance their love of royal news with the expectation that public figures in Britain should have a right to privacy when it comes to health. The Times devoted a double-page spread to the issue over the weekend.
But on Monday, when a Mother’s Day photo of Catherine published by the palace was found to have been doctored by international photo agencies, the issue became too big to ignore. The front pages of British newspapers on Monday were devoted to the photo, but only a few had time to change their copies to comply with publication ban notices issued by photo agencies including AP and Getty.
Before the agencies intervened, The Sun’s royal editor Matt Wilkinson referred to “nonsense on social media” and said the photo was an important signal that the princess was OK. He added:
“The Princess of Wales is one of the most photographed women in the world, but this one today is perhaps one of the most important we have seen for many years. She’s looking well and she’s smiling and hopefully this will now dispel any of these crazy myths that have been going around online.”
ROYAL RECALL soon appeared on The Sun’s website. ITV News royal editor Chris Ship said in a post on the X website that the attempt to control the rumour mill had failed.
“I suspect this was not the headline Kensington Palace was hoping to get from the normally supportive Telegraph on Monday morning: Photo from Palace was doctored, say agencies.”
Piers Morgan, who has never shied away from royal comment, issued a “kill notice” to the AP and said the scandal had likely only made matters worse. He wrote on X:
“If, as this astounding AP kill notice claims, the Palace manipulated that Kate photo to quash all the wild conspiracy theories about her, then they’ll have just made things 100x worse.”
The Daily Mirror’s front page is almost entirely devoted to a “happy Mother’s Day flick” with no mention of the manipulation scandal, while The Daily Telegraph’s headline reads:
“Photo from palace was doctored, agencies say.”
Hours after the Mirror published its front page on Monday on X, it posted a new article about the “cringe editing fail”, but later published another that emphasised the “subtle change in Kate Middleton’s warm smile”.
On Monday, a photo appeared on the front page of the Daily Express with the words “Kate thanks the nation for its support with a charming snapshot that proves she is on the mend.” The Daily Mail had time to update the article and realise that what was intended to reassure the public didn’t work.
The Associated Press – one of four agencies that withdrew the photo, including Getty, AFP and Reuters – detailed how it first published the picture and then deleted it and told the media to do the same. The agency accused Kensington Palace of manipulating the image. The AP statement read:
“The Associated Press initially published the photo, which was issued by Kensington Palace. The AP later retracted the image because at closer inspection, it appears that the source had manipulated the image in a way that did not meet AP’s photo standards. The photo shows an inconsistency in the alignment of Princess Charlotte’s left hand.”
British news outlets did not publish the TMZ paparazzi photo of Catherine wearing large sunglasses in the passenger seat of a car driven by her mother, but the shot was widely shared on social media.
The British media adheres to a code of practice that protects people from unwarranted intrusion into matters of physical and mental health, and the court ruled that the right to privacy extends to the royal family.
