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How Kate Middleton 'created Mother's Day picture on Photoshop': Metadata reveals Princess 'edited image on Friday and Saturday after it was taken by William on £2,929 Canon camera' - as Palace faces calls to release original photo
Kate's manipulated family photograph for Mother's Day was edited twice on Adobe Photoshop in recent days before it was released by Kensington Palace.
The Princess of Wales has taken the blame for the picture being changed, which led to its withdrawal by six news agencies in the hours after it was published.
Now, it has emerged that a file of the image was saved in the photo editing software twice on an Apple Mac – once on Friday at 9.54pm and again on Saturday at 9.39am.
It is unclear whether these two saves were made on the same device and by whom, although Kate has since admitted that she was 'experimenting with editing'.
Data within the file - known as the 'metadata' - also showed the image was taken on a Canon 5D mark IV camera costing £2,930 with a Canon 50mm lens priced at £1,630.
The metadata shows that Adobe Photoshop version 23.5 was used to edit the picture on an Apple Mac. On the second line from the bottom, it says: 'Adobe Photoshop 23.5 (Macintosh)'
The second edit was made on Saturday at 9.39am, according to the image metadata which says on the bottom line that it had a 'modify date' of March 9, 2024, with timestamp 09:39
The image was taken on a Canon 5D mark IV camera with a 50mm lens, with the metadata giving info of the 'EF50mm' - which is a Canon model
Details within the metadata were revealed by the Sky News data and forensics unit which analysed the file – although it is still not clear what was actually changed.
Sky News reporter Rhiannon Mills said: 'We have actually looked into the metadata - so behind this image there's a whole raft of information if you dig down into it - and found out that the image was saved in Adobe Photoshop and it was edited twice.
'So on two occasions, the picture was altered. What we don't know still, at the moment, is exactly how the alterations were made - and at the moment the Palace are not going there in terms of what exactly was changed within that photograph.'
Kensington Palace is now facing calls to release the original image after the Princess issued an apology.
Kate said sorry with a statement on social media which read: '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. I hope everyone celebrating had a very happy Mother's Day. C.'
The photograph of Kate and her children, taken by William, was the first to be issued since the Princess's abdominal surgery and was released by the Palace to mark Mother's Day.
But it was withdrawn with a 'Kill' notice by international picture agencies hours later, and the UK's PA news agency today, because of suspicions it had been manipulated.
Kensington Palace yesterday released the first picture of the Princess of Wales since surgery
The PA news agency said it had withdrawn the image of Kate from its picture service today
Royal sources said the Princess of Wales made 'minor adjustments' and that Kate and the Prince of Wales wanted to offer an informal picture of the family together for Mother's Day.
'This was an amateur, family photograph taken by the Prince of Wales. Their Royal Highnesses wanted to offer an informal picture of the family together for Mother's Day,' the source said.
'The Princess made minor adjustments as she shared in her statement on social media, the Wales family spent Mother's Day together and had a wonderful day.'
Despite calls for the original to be published, Kensington Palace said it would not be reissuing the unedited photograph of Kate and her children.
The Palace faced growing pressure over the debacle with the controversy branded damaging to the public's trust of the royal family.
Concerns were raised over a missing part of Princess Charlotte's sleeve and the misaligned edge of her skirt, with other speculation including the positioning of Kate's zip.
The picture was released to reassure the public amid escalating conspiracy theories online over the state of Kate's health in recent weeks, but in an extraordinary turn of events sparked what is being dubbed 'Kategate' and even 'Sleevegate'.
William and Kate have an established track record of issuing their own photographs, often taken by Kate rather than William, to mark special occasions including their children's birthdays.
But the princess's confession raises questions over whether - or to what extent - the images have been altered in the past.
It appears Charlotte's hand was copied over from another picture as there is an empty space where her sleeve should be
Kate's zip appears to be misaligned on the photo as the top of it is further left and appears significantly lighter than the rest of the zip
Public relations and crisis consultant Mark Borkowski called the fiasco a 'massive own goal' and said the unedited photograph should be released to regain trust.
He said: 'It's plausible she's at home playing with the computer and using an AI tool, but if they're really going to regain any sort of trust they should release the unedited photo, it can't be that bad if they just made a few tweaks.
'I find they have risen to the challenge, provided the statement as an explanation - the question is with all the conspiracy theories running around, is whether people believe it and I'm not sure that they will.'
Mr Borkowski said the Mother's Day photo had exposed a public relations problem for the monarchy: 'That's the issue, there doesn't seem to be that much joined up strategic thinking at the heart of the royal family at the moment, which leads to these problems where it's a very difficult organisation to manage in terms of PR.'
He added: 'It's a nightmare, even the softer stories of Edward turning 60 this week haven't really resonated at all because no one's interested in them, they're interested in the stars they're not interested in the supporting cast and that is a problem at the moment.
'They are under pressure, massively under pressure, this is a massive own goal.'
The controversy is set to overshadow the Commonwealth Day service, one of the key royal events of the year.
Charlotte's hair seems to end abruptly on her shoulder on her right despite her hair on the left going on for a few inches
The corner of Charlotte's skirt was pointed out as another 'editing error' by social media sleuths
Heir to the throne William and the Queen will gather with the royal family in Westminster Abbey on Monday in the absence of the King, who is continuing treatment for cancer during what has been a challenging start to 2024 for the Windsors.
Earlier, Kate's uncle Gary Goldsmith defended the Waleses and claimed they would not have been responsible for altering the image.
The Celebrity Big Brother evictee said: 'Obviously the family wouldn't be the ones to do any touch-ups, so if that's gone through some filter before it's gone out to the broader world, but they wouldn't be doing photoshopping themselves.'
He told Good Morning Britain: 'The smiles on faces said it all for me, I thought it was beautiful.'
Mr Goldsmith added: 'And this whole 'sleevegate' thing, just leave it alone.'
Royal author Omid Scobie, seen as a cheerleader for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, accused the Palace of having a 'long history of lying', and said gaining back public trust was now 'an almost impossible task'.
Scobie wrote on X that if it was an isolated incident, it was an 'unfortunate error'.
He added: 'But with the Palace's long history of lying, covering up, and even issuing statements on behalf of family members without their permission (cc: Prince Harry), it's becoming increasingly difficult for the public to believe a word (and now photo) they share.
Kate posted an apology on the Prince and Princess of Wales' Instagram account this morning
'Gaining that back at this point is an almost impossible task.'
The princess is known to be a keen photographer and revealed in 2021 that she takes so many family photographs that her children sometimes object.
'Everyone's like, 'Mummy, please stop taking photographs',' she said.
Kate underwent surgery at the London Clinic on January 16, but details of her condition have been kept private, and she is not expected to return to official duties until after Easter.