The situation escalated when several major news agencies withdrew the image. Princess Kate later addressed the issue directly, admitting that the photo had been edited. In a short statement signed with her initial, she explained that she sometimes experiments with editing like many amateur photographers and apologised for any confusion caused.
Another Sussex image questioned
In a separate Instagram post, Meghan Markle was accused of combining two different images into one. The photo appeared in a mood board-style collage celebrating her relationship with Prince Harry, with one picture pinned alongside a note reading “our love story.”
Some online commentators claimed the image showed signs of splicing, suggesting Meghan and Harry’s faces may have come from separate photographs. Others compared the pose to earlier images of the couple participating in a traditional Maori greeting, theorising that an old photo had been repurposed to appear more intimate.
As with many royal image controversies, the claims were never confirmed, but the speculation once again highlighted how closely every detail of royal photography is now examined.