Manipulated Kate Middleton Photo Sparks Royal Frenzy Of Jokes ...

The Royal Family photo that started it all.

Most of us post a Photoshopped image and go about our day. Kate Middleton, Princess of Wales, posts an altered picture and finds herself at the center of endless speculation and conspiracy theories. Is Prince William not in the family picture because he’s no longer in the marriage picture? Is Middleton’s recovery from unspecified abdominal surgery not going as well as Kensington Palace has said? Has some sinister mystery deserving of a Watergate-level coverup enveloped the British royal family?

Whatever the answers to the questions dogging the royals like a bunch of corgis trailing the late queen, the internet is loving the drama.

“I’m not generally into conspiracy theories but this Kate Middleton photo has got me feeling like a flat earther,” wrote one user of X, formerly known as Twitter.

The brouhaha follows Middleton’s admission Monday that she did a bit of nipping and tucking to a picture of her and her three kids posted to official royal social media accounts on Sunday to mark Mother’s Day in the U.K., and presumably assure the world she’s doing okay post-op. Hours after Kensington Palace posted the photo, news agencies including Reuters and the Associated Press released advisories cautioning media outlets not to use the image because it had been manipulated.

“Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing,” Middleton said in an apology posted Monday that the social media masses doubt she wrote herself. “I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused.”

While AI doesn’t appear to have played a role in the photo, the growing use of AI to produce photos and videos doubtlessly informs the conversation. Generative AI tools have raised questions about misinformation and misrepresentation that now have worked their way up to the royal family.

The photo’s oddities include inconsistencies in the alignment of body parts and a couple of clothing glitches. While the average viewer might not notice such anomalies, internet sleuths have become highly attuned to identifying fake images or images altered by AI.

While many responded to the original photo, and the apology, by wishing Middleton well in her recovery, others have been enjoying taking the manipulated photo way further. Amusing posts include versions of the photo with moving heads and superimposed faces and AI versions that turn Middleton into a cartoon character.

Some are having trouble believing Middleton was actually the one who altered the photo—“imagine Kate Middleton hunched over photoshop lol,” one person wrote on Twitter. Others people are imagining The Crown writers hoping the show comes back for another season even though it already ended for good.

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