Breaking their silence on the Princess of Wales’ photo-editing controversy, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have refuted rumours that people inside their camp discussed how the Duchess of Sussex would have responded to a comparable circumstance.
An official for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s Archewell Foundation came out to refute any official statement the couple had given to Page Six regarding the controversy, amid growing conjecture surrounding the Mother’s Day photo of Catherine and her kids that Kensington Palace had released to the public on Sunday.
Photo: © Wire Images
In an interview with Newsweek, the spokesperson responded to statements made by the publication, according to which a source “close to Prince William, Harry, and his wife” had not originated “from us.”
The concerned source told Page Six that Meghan “wouldn’t ever make” the editing error because “she has a keen eye and freakish attention to detail.”
But the information “did not come from us,” as Archewell’s official spokesman insisted to Newsweek, saying only, “With respect to Page Six, that did not come from us.”
Harry, 39, and his spouse have never before publicly addressed the photo editing controversy in any official capacity, until now, with this statement.
Apart from the assertions that Meghan ‘would never have made the [same] mistake,’ Page Six also carried statements from an insider claiming that the Sussexes ‘would have been annihilated’ if they had released an image with similar editing.
According to the source, “Harry and Meghan would have been destroyed if they had ever run into the same problem.”
“Neither couple is subject to the same rules.”
“There’s no way Meghan could make a mistake like this. She pays amazing attention to detail and has a sharp eye.”
Photo: © EPA
The publication did not specify that the quotes originated from within Archewell, though Newsweek pointed out that it is possible that a Sussex family friend who is not formally associated with the Foundation made the remarks.
Following an upsurge in conspiracy theories, six of the top photo agencies in the world—including the Press Association—sensitively removed the photo from their wire services and libraries due to concerns that the “source has manipulated the image.” Meghan and Harry have responded to those claims.
In a statement shared on the Wales official Instagram account, Princess Catherine apologised for the “confusion” and publicly accepted responsibility for the family photo that Kensington Palace had made public.
Like a lot of amateur photographers, I do sometimes play around with editing. She wrote, “I wanted to apologise for any confusion that the family photo we shared yesterday may have caused.”
“I hope everyone who celebrated had a very happy Mother’s Day,” Catherine said as she signed the “C” for Catherine.
Photo: © Bruce Bennett
The first official image of the mother-of-three that has been made public since her “planned abdominal surgery” on January 16 shows her grinning alongside Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis.
The unedited photo of Catherine and her kids will not be reissued, Kensington Palace announced, in defiance of calls for the original to be made public.
Following the public conjecture over the picture, insiders close to the royal family have stated that the Princess of Wales is keen to put the argument behind her and is finding it difficult to cope with the fallout.
Catherine was photographed leaving Windsor Castle with her husband, Prince William, on Monday, the first time she had been seen since the picture was made public.
The Princess of Wales was reportedly heading to a “private appointment,” while Prince William was scheduled to visit London for two public events.
After undergoing abdominal surgery and spending two weeks in a private hospital in London in January, the mother-of-three was not expected to be seen in public until after Easter. The princess’s health was the subject of intense online conspiracy theories at the time of her unexpected arrival.
Photo: © The Prince of Wales via Instagram
There has been a lot of pressure on Kensington Palace to release the original image, which experts claim was altered with Photoshop and other AI tools.
Later, the world’s leading photo agencies ‘killed’ the image when they discovered evidence of digital editing, such as a portion of Princess Charlotte’s sleeve missing, her wrist and skirt edges not aligned, and the way Catherine’s zip was positioned.
