Kate Middleton's Edited Family Photo

About

Kate Middleton's Edited Family Photo refers to a picture of Kate Middleton, Princess of Wales, given to the press amid conspiracy theories about her extended absence from the public eye. However, the press later refused to run the picture, citing evidence of digital manipulation. This led to intensified conspiracies about Middleton's absence, as well as edits of the picture parodying the digital manipulation. Middleton's Twitter / X account attempted to mitigate the damage by claiming she was "experimenting with editing," though this only led to further conspiracies and parodies.

Origin

On March 10th, 2024, amid speculation about Kate Middleton's absence from the public eye following abdominal surgery, Kensington Palace released a photo of Middleton with her three children^[1] (shown below).

After initially getting published by AP,^[2] the news organization retracted the photo due to evidence of digital manipulation, and other news organizations refused to run the photo for the same reason. One manipulation cited by AP was "the alignment of Princess Charlotte’s left hand with the sleeve of her sweater."

Spread

Upon news that the photo had been retracted due to evidence of digital manipulation, speculation around Middleton's absence from the public eye intensified, while users on social media began to joke about the picture by editing it in absurd ways. For example, on March 10th, 2024, Twitter user @meghanxhaz^[3] posted an edit that replaced Kate with the Oompa Loompa Bartender, gaining over 2,500 retweets and 32,000 likes in one day (shown below, left).

On March 11th, Twitter user @PaulCWallop^[4] posted an edit that replaced Kate with a bottle of Cerveza Cristal, gaining over 120 retweets and 1,700 likes in a matter of hours (shown below, right).

Like Many Amateur Photographers…

On March 11th, 2024, Kate Middleton's official Twitter account^[5] posted an explanation for the digitally altered photo. Appearing to be written by Middleton, the tweet claimed she was an amateur photographer who was "experimenting with editing." The tweet gained over 12,000 retweets and 31,000 likes in less than one day (shown below).

The tweet became a copypasta with which people posted highly edited, absurd photographs. For example, that day, Twitter user @ted_pen^[6] posted an edit of the Kevin James Smirk with large boobs meme, gaining over 300 retweets and 4,500 likes in a matter of hours (shown below, left). The same day, user @Number10Cat^[7] posted it with an edit of a cat giving a press conference outside 10 Downing Street, gaining over 790 retweets and 7,700 likes in a similar timeframe (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References