Let me start off by saying that I’m not an avid follower of the Royals. Sure, I know enough about Prince William, Kate, and their kiddos and that they have their fair share of family drama like the rest of us do. Still, they’ve managed to maintain a pretty popular public opinion, due in part to their ability to connect with people in a way that previous generations haven’t. But when the Princess of Wales recently released an image of herself with her kids, well, the Internet lost its sh*t — and they shouldn’t have.
Kate has been an enigma as of late, since having had abdominal surgery in January. So to see this sweet (and at first glance, unassuming photo of her with children Princes George and Louis, and Princess Charlotte) on her Instagram was nice. Until people online started zooming in on the image. And that’s when they saw this:
1- Kate’s hands. Oy, where to start? The first glaringly obvious sign that the photo was, ahem, enhanced was looking at her hands, which are wrapped around Louis and Charlotte. Her left hand seems normal enough, but her right hand? Well, it’s a bit of a blur — literally.
Then, you look back at that other hand again and think, “Hmm, either Kate has extremely long arms that she’s able to wrap her arms around her kids…or there’s something wrong with the image.” And sure enough, if you zoom in, it’s apparent that Kate retouched Princess Charlotte’s outfit, since her sweater and Kate’s hand don’t look natural — at all. Plus, you can’t mask the fact that Charlotte’s skirt has picked up the color from her sweater — a sure sign of mediocre Photoshop masking.
As if all that weren’t enough, commenters were quick to say that the image was made with AI (a point that has been disputed by the Royal family) and that the photo of Kate might not have been the original one from the photo.
After the photo sparked outrage, Princess Kate posted this:
“Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing. 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.”
The photo has been pulled from various news agencies, since there are strict guidelines about images that have been manipulated. In fact, The Associated Press, Reuters, and Getty Images have kill notices for the photo. That’s how big a deal this image is.
Listen, we’ve all done it. When you’re trying to get that perfect Santa Claus mall opp (and one kid is smiling while your toddler is screaming their head off) who hasn’t been tempted to clone out the crying kiddo for the shot where they’re sort of smiling? Or how many times have you used an Insta filter to make your picture pop? Probably a lot more than you’d like to admit.
And that’s what makes this image so relatable. The Princess of Wales is just a mom trying to post a nice pic of herself and her kids. There’s nothing earth shattering about it. It’s something we all want, to have a beautiful photo of our family that captures the best of them — even when one of your kids is a serious blinker. So instead of focusing on all the Photoshop mistakes she made, maybe we can all learn a lesson in that sometimes picture perfect isn’t all that important — and that Kate needs to learn how to use the mask tool a bit better.