Yet Another Photo Kate Middleton Took and Released to the Public Was Digitally Manipulated, Major Global News Agency Getty Images Says

(Image credit: Getty Images)

published 19 March 2024

In what is beginning to feel like a row of dominoes falling one by one, Getty Images—a major global news agency—has deemed that a photo of the late Queen Elizabeth alongside her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, taken by the Princess of Wales, was also digitally manipulated, multiple outlets report.

The photo was released to the public for the occasion of what would have been Her late Majesty’s 97th birthday last April; it was taken the summer prior, not long before her passing, at Balmoral, where she died on September 8, 2022, at 96 years old.

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Although the photo of the late Queen and her family has been in the public domain for nearly a year, Getty just announced that the photo had been manipulated. The outlet pointed out six different discrepancies, including a vertical line where the tartan of Her late Majesty’s skirt doesn’t match and a digital repetition of great-granddaughter Mia Tindall’s hair.

“Getty Images has reviewed the image in question and placed an editor’s note on it, stating that the image has been digitally enhanced at source," a Getty spokesperson told The Telegraph.

Princess Kate apology — Kate apologized for digitally altering a Mother's Day photo of herself and her three kids; no word yet from her about the most recent photo found to have been edited

In the photo, Queen Elizabeth sits on a green sofa flanked by two of her grandchildren, Lady Louise and James, Earl of Wessex, the children of the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, Edward and Sophie, and several of her great-grandchildren, including Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis.

Kate Middleton in profile

Kate has been under rampant fire lately for her absence from the public eye and her editing of family photos released to the public

(Image credit: Getty)

It remains to be seen how many other photos released by Kate’s office over the years—including many portraits of kids George, Charlotte, and Louis, taken by Kate herself to mark their birthdays—will be analyzed and also deemed to have been digitally manipulated, but the best guess is we haven’t heard the end of this yet.

So far anyway, Kensington Palace has not commented.

Rachel Burchfield is a writer, editor, and podcaster whose primary interests are fashion and beauty, society and culture, and, most especially, the British Royal Family and other royal families around the world. She serves as Marie Claire’s Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor and has also contributed to publications like Allure, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, People, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and W, among others. Before taking on her current role with Marie Claire, Rachel served as its Weekend Editor and later Royals Editor. She is the cohost of Podcast Royal, a show that was named a top five royal podcast by The New York Times. A voracious reader and lover of books, Rachel also hosts I’d Rather Be Reading, which spotlights the best current nonfiction books hitting the market and interviews the authors of them. Rachel frequently appears as a media commentator, and she or her work has appeared on outlets like NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN, and more.

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