Viral claim behind Kate Middleton's edited Mother's Day photo takes internet by storm

A social media user named Ruby Naldrett thinks she has figured out how Kate Middleton’s Mother's Day photo, which generated controversy, was actually edited

A social media user named Ruby Naldrett thinks she has figured out how Kate Middleton’s Mother's Day photo, which generated a lot of controversy, was actually edited. Ruby, who works in social media at UK tabloid the Daily Mirror, took to X to claim that the image was edited by using a photo from Kate’s 2016 Vogue photoshoot.

X user believes Kate Middleton's photo was edited using a picture from a 2016 Vogue photoshoot (AP Photo/Frank Augstein, Pool, File )(AP)

Ruby shared the Vogue photo and the recent photo side by side. “my analysis of the kate middleton photo saga is that they took her face from the vogue cover she did years ago and edited it in,” Ruby wrote. The post on X was viewed more than three million times in a few hours.

Several major news agencies withdrew Kate’s family photo, which was released by Kensington Palace, alleging it had been manipulated. According to the Associated Press, “at closer inspection it appears that the source has manipulated the image.” Agence France-Presse said they withdrew it due to “an editorial issue.”

Kate later issued an apology for the Photoshop errors in the image. “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,” she wrote on X from the official Prince and Princess of Wales page.

What are X users saying?

Many commented on Ruby’s post, with one user saying, “Good find. Seems to be a step above a basic free trial photoshop.” “That’s why her hair is blurry and translucent from them enhancing where the hat flattened it. Wow,” another user said.

Some, however, disagreed, with one saying, “Nah, that cover is from 2016 and she looks way younger for the obvious reasons.” “did believe your theory but after closer inspection it’s just because it’s the same person. plus they didn’t do a good photoshop job so there’s no way they would’ve nailed the light source on her face so well,” one user said, while another wrote, “Nah, it's impossible to remove the shadow/highlights from the sun on the coverphoto.”