Photo Agencies Pull ‘Manipulated’ Palace Pic of Kate Middleton and Kids
The image released Sunday of Princess Kate Middleton smiling, surrounded by her loving children on Mother’s Day, only had one job: to cement in the global hive mind the simple message that all was well in Britain’s royal family.
Instead, a sloppy photoshopping error on Princess Charlotte’s hand, combined with Kate’s decision not to wear her wedding band in the picture, plunged the British royal family into a new maelstrom of controversy Sunday.
Less than 12 hours after the image was issued on social media and via news agencies, four of the biggest global news and picture agencies that the royals use to circulate pictures—The Associated Press (AP) Reuters, Agence France-Presse (AFP) and Getty Images—issued urgent advisories: the picture should be removed immediately and the story “killed.”