ROYALSKensington Palace No Longer a 'Trusted Source' After Kate Middleton's Photo Debacle
March 14 2024, Published 1:34 p.m. ET
After Kate Middleton admitted she edited a photo taken of herself and her three kids — Prince George, 10, Princess Charlotte, 8, and Prince Louis, 5 — the global news director of Agence France-Presse, one of the world's biggest news agencies, told the BBC that Kensington Palace is no longer a "trusted source."
Kate Middleton confessed she edited a photo.
Phil Chetwynd, global news director of AFP, said the palace is not to be believed going forward. “No, absolutely not. Like with anything, when you’re let down by a source the bar is raised … We sent out notes to all our teams at the moment to be absolutely super more vigilant about the content coming across our desk — even from what we would call trusted sources," he said during an interview with Media Show presenter Ros Atkins.
Photo agencies pulled Kate Middleton's questionable photo on March 10.
“To kill something on the basis of manipulation [is rare. We do it] once a year maybe, I hope less. The previous kills we’ve had have been from the North Korean news agency or the Iranian news agency,” he explained. "One thing that’s really important is you cannot be distorting reality for the public. There’s a question of trust. And the big issue here is one of trust, and the lack of trust and the falling trust of the general public in institutions generally and in the media. And so it’s extremely important that a photo does represent broadly the reality that it’s seen in.”
Kate Middleton underwent abdominal surgery.
- 'Amateur' Kate Middleton Admits She 'Experimented With Editing' in Family Photo After Its Pulled From 4 News Agencies
- Kate Middleton Left 'Humiliated' by Her Photoshop Fail, But She Is 'Accepting the Blame'
- Kate Middleton's Editing Scandal Continues to Be a PR Nightmare Despite Prince William Gushing Over His Wife During Speech
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As OK! previously reported, Kate, who recently underwent abdominal surgery, posted a photo in honor of Mother's Day in the U.K. on March 10, but quickly began to notice the picture was altered.
Leading photo agencies — Reuters, the Associated Press, Getty and AFP — all pulled the photograph after claiming it had been altered. "At closer inspection, it appears that the source has manipulated the image," a "kill notification" reportedly released by AP read.
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Kate Middleton has only been seen a few times since her surgery.
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The next day, Kate confessed she had made a big mistake.
"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," Kate wrote via X, formerly known as Twitter, on March 11.
