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Kate Middleton’s apparent Photoshop fail has a commentator asking a question about Meghan Markle. Namely, how the Princess of Wales’ estranged sister-in-law, the Duchess of Sussex, didn’t get a public apology in the wake of the bridesmaid dress drama.
Kate apologized edited photo ‘confusion’
On March 10, 2024, Kensington Palace shared the first official image of Kate since the 42-year-old underwent abdominal surgery in January 2024. (She previously appeared in a photo taken by paparazzi.)
The snap, marking Mother’s Day in the U.K. and taken by Prince William, showed a smiling Kate alongside the couple’s three children.
“Thank you for your kind wishes and continued support over the last two months,” Kate said in the caption. “Wishing everyone a Happy Mother’s Day,” she added before signing off with “C” for Catherine (via Instagram).
Not long after the image went live, irregularities were spotted online in the way of editing. Eventually, many major photo agencies issued a “kill” notice for the family photo, removing it from their databases due to the manipulation concerns.
On March 11, 2024, Kate issued a response on her and the Prince of Wales’s social media accounts to address the “confusion” surrounding the snapshot.
“Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing,” Kate said. “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. C.”
In a March 11, 2024, post to X, formerly Twitter, commentator Dr. Shola Mos-Shogbamimu noted how swiftly the palace issued an apology from Kate.
“Under 24hrs Kensington Palace tweets Princess of Wales apology to clear up confusion because hers/Prince William[‘s] credibility is at risk,” the activist, lawyer, and author said.
She then asked why something similar didn’t happen with the 2018 bridesmaid dress drama. Tabloids originally reported Meghan made Kate cry. In 2021, however, Meghan refuted the claim. She told Oprah it was the other way around. As in, Kate made her cry only to later apologize with a note and flowers.
“So why didn’t Kate ever tweet [an] apology to clear up confusion for [the] ‘Meghan made Kate cry’ lie, which fed [the] global racist pile on [sic] against Meghan?”
Harry addressed the situation in his 2023 Spare memoir. In addition to saying it centered around ill-fitting dresses, he shared why neither Kate nor the palace ever publicly corrected the story.
Writing he “already knew the truth” when Meghan posed a similar question to Kate and William in December 2018, Harry said that were it addressed, “it would embarrass the future queen.”
“The monarchy,” he explained, “always, at all cost, had to be protected.”
‘Thrown under the bus’ Kate should fire the Kensington Palace public relations staff after Mother’s Day photo
Mos-Shogbamimu continued, saying Kate and William should replace their PR team in light of the edited photo debacle.
“Assuming ‘C’ is Kate Middleton admitting to editing the image,” Mos-Shogbamimu wrote in a separate post to X. “[It] seems like she’s just been thrown under the bus by Prince William” and [Kensington] Palace.”
“Like, use [the] message from recovering mother to silence criticism because they messed up? Honestly, they should sack their PR team,” she said.
