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By James Crawford-Smith
Royal Reporter
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The highly anticipated first official photograph of the Princess of Wales taken since her abdominal surgery in January was released on Sunday to mark Mother's Day in Britain; however, it has inspired a wave of fresh royal controversy.
The portrait, taken of the princess and her three children by Prince William, has been pulled from the libraries of some of the world's largest picture agencies amid allegations that it has been digitally manipulated.
There has been a month of speculation ranging from the humorous jokes that the real reason for Kate's public absence was for cosmetic surgery, to the serious, that she was somehow "missing." Now, the apparently altered photo has done little to increase the public's faith in Kensington Palace's public relations strategy. Newsweek approached Kensington Palace in London via email for comment.
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In general the palace have taken a "no comment" approach to questions about Kate's health. It is a position that has done little to shut down speculation and conspiracy theories over the past three months and shows no sign of doing so now.
On Monday, however, a rare personal statement was released by Kate taking ownership of the Mother's Day photo backlash.
"Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing," she said in a self-authored statement issued through social media.
"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"
While some serious questions about the palace are being to be raised in the wake of this new controversy, social media has taken a more lighthearted position, with the princess and the portrait becoming the basis for a wide-ranging collection of satirical memes.
Here, Newsweek takes a look at some of the internet's favorites so far.
The Issues
Social-media users raised a number of issues with the photograph released of the Princess of Wales and her three children marking Mother's Day on Sunday, all seemingly linked to allegations of image manipulation.
A main point raised is a masking error around the sleeve of Princess Charlotte and a similar issue with Prince Louis' trousers.
Chris Ship, Britain's ITV network's royal editor, highlighted the points in a post to social media, linking them to conspiracy theories.
"I've never been much of a conspiracy theorist but if @AP @AFP @Reuters & other picture agencies are concerned enough to remove it and ask clients to delete it, there are serious questions for Kensington Palace - which was the source of the photo," Ship wrote. "These appears to be the issues."
The Memes
A number of social-media users have posted satirical reactions to the Kensington Palace photograph and its ensuing reaction, wracking up hundreds of thousands of views on platforms such as X (formerly Twitter).
'Succession' and the Social Media Manager
A collection of memes inspired by the new portrait of Kate and her children, have been aimed at Kensington Palace and the Prince and Princess of Wales' staff.
A post from X user @teewatterss on Sunday captioned "the royal family social media manager thinking they did a good job on the Kate Middleton photo edits," features a gif from the hit TV show Succession. It shows the character of Roman Roy (played by Kieran Culkin) looking dejectedly at a computer screen.
This post has gained more than 2.5 million views on the platform.
'Toy Story' Conspiracy
Uploaded to X by user @_rskid26 on Monday, a video clip from the 1995 Pixar movie, Toy Story, references social media discourse around Kensington Palace's apparent strategy to maintain an appearance of normality during the PR crisis.
In the clip, the character of "Woody" appears to wave the disconnected arm of friend "Buzz" in an attempt to maintain the appearance that everything is OK.
Captioned "The Royals trying to announce Kate Middleton is absolutely fine," the clip has received over 420,000 views so far.
Notorious Willy Wonka Experience
At the time Kate conspiracy theories were setting social media alight in late February so was another British cultural phenomenon, a failed Willy Wonka family experience in the Scottish city of Glasgow.
"Willy's Chocolate Experience" was widely shared as a disappointing example of false advertising and was picked up by the mainstream news, thanks to social media's fascination with the event.
Coinciding with the discourse and speculation about Kate's whereabouts, some users joked that the princess wasn't "missing" but had simply taken up a job at the Willy Wonka experience.
On Monday, following the release of the Mother's Day portrait, X user @meghanxhaz posted an edited version of the image, with an actress portraying an "Oompa Loompa" character from the Glasgow experience in the place of Kate, captioned: "The original photo WITHOUT photoshop has been unearthed by the international press."
The post has gained over 485,000 views so far.
Sims Sleuthing
A number of posts have seen social-media users express engaged interest in the developments, theories and speculation surrounding Kate and the photo.
X user @SophLouiseHall posted a screenshot from The Sims computer game, which shows a women focused on a computer screen as a baby lies in flames next to her. It is captioned: "'Not now sweetie I'm zooming in on the Princess of Wales' sleeve to prove something.'"
This post has been viewed over 805,000 times.
Oscars Applause
Highlighting the fast-paced reactivity of social-media users, several memes relating to Kate and her recent portrait have been combined with images or gifs from the Academy Awards ceremony, which took place in Hollywood on Sunday night.
One post, created by X user @RealNeilC, includes a gif of Messi the dog who starred in Best Picture-nominated movie Anatomy of a Fall, as he appeared in a skit during the ceremony. The dog was shown onscreen with a pair of fake paws giving the appearance that he was applauding.
The post caption read: "This is easily more believable than Kate Middleton."
It has received over 474,000 views on the platform so far.
James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek*'s royal reporter, based in London. You can find him on X (formerly Twitter) at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on* Newsweek*'s The Royals Facebook page.*
Do you have a question about King Charles III, William and Kate, Meghan and Harry, or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email royals@newsweek.com. We'd love to hear from you.
Update 3/11/24, 9:54 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information.
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