Internet in frenzy as TikToker claims Kate Middleton's Mother's Day family photo was taken last November

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM: Outrageous claims regarding the origin of the photograph of Kate Middleton shared by Kensington Palace on Sunday, March 10, which was Mother's Day in the UK, have been going around the Internet ever since it went viral. 

Speculations related to the authenticity of the picture took a massive turn when multiple globally renowned photo hosting agencies, including Reuters, Associated Press, Getty Images, and AFP withdrew it, claiming that the image might have been digitally manipulated.

The photo, nevertheless, marks the first photo of the Princess of Wales released by Kensington Palace since her planned abdominal surgery in January.

TikToker claims Kate Middleton's Mother's Day photo is from November

Even though multiple conspiracy theories started doing the rounds of the Internet, the one propounded by TikToker Allyn Aston gained exceptional momentum. She essentially claimed that the photograph was taken in November 2023 when the Princess of Wales visited a baby bank in Maidenhead with her children.

When the photo was initially published, it was claimed that it was taken just earlier in the week at the family's home in Windsor, as per PEOPLE Magazine.

Aston shared a three-minute-long clip where she analyzed the photo and came to the conclusion that it has been “photoshopped” heavily, as per MailOnline.

The video started with her claiming, "We all know this photo has probably been photoshopped to hell and back." She then propounded her theory that the photograph is a mash-up of some photographs taken in November of 2023.

Aston then claimed the outfits worn by Kate, Prince George, and Princess Charlotte bear proof of her claim. She went on to show the screenshot of a news piece showing Kate's visit to The Baby Bank in Maidenhead with her three children in November 2023.

The TikToker noted, "If you know anything about Kate Middleton, you know that people obsessively track her fashion, so of course I was able to find a bunch of blogs breaking down exactly what she was wearing."

She then pointed to the cream turtleneck worn by Kate during the baby bank visit, and said, "It's photoshopped, I think they changed around the clothes on the photo."

Subsequently, Aston conjectured the sweater worn by Kate in the Mother’s Day photo exactly matched the one she wore during the baby bank visit, albeit the one in the recent photo was of a darker color. She also pulled attention to the way the sweater "landed on her thigh area."

According to her, the claims have ground as the particular sweater is available only in two colors, cream and camel. Thus she believes its color was made darker through Photoshop for the Mother's Day photograph.

She then shifted her attention to the boots worn by Kate and claimed the pair she was wearing in Sunday's photo was the exact same pair as the November one.

Moving ahead from the Princess of Wales, the TikToker then fixed her attention to Princess Charlotte's attire as she pointed out the ruffled neckline on her sweater on Mother's Day and propounded that she believed it was the same one from the November outing, noting that the apparent editor had "just added another sweater on top."

The TikToker simultaneously suggested that Charlotte's boots and tights appeared to be the same. Though she acknowledged that Charlotte’s skirt looked different, Aston didn't let it hinder her from elaborating on the theory.

She pointed out that Prince George's also looks similar and that the colors of his shirt and sweater might have been tweaked using Photoshop.

In conclusion, Aston said, "I'm sure a lot of people call me crazy and I'm used to it so go ahead."

Princess of Wales apologizes for editing Mother's Day photograph

As the Internet was rife with speculations regarding the photograph's authenticity, through the official X (formerly Twitter) account of The Prince and Princess of Wales, Kate expressed, "Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing."

She added, "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."

Internet reacts to the TikToker's claims about the reality of Kate Middleton's Mother's Day photo 

One noted, "I forensically analyze photos and this one is so heavily manipulated, every level of analysis redlined lol. Pixels don’t lie," and another suggested, "Why is there so much crossing on this Kate Middleton image?"

"They HAD to have known — no, they DID know that when they released this photo that this would be the exact sort of zoom-in-rabbit-hole scrutiny the photo would get. Why not do a better job at releasing a more believable photo? They knew people would look close, like really close," remarked a person. 

Someone else mentioned, "Truly hate that I've become a conspiracy theorist but the more I look, the more bizarre it all becomes."

"Lol same but like one HAS to admit at this point that something is so wrong and so off. What are they hiding I wanna knowwwww 😭😂," expressed one more.

An individual stated, "I was skeptical until they got to the sons sweater. You can clearly see they colored the checker shirt but it wasn't dark enough to cover the pattern. What the heck is going on because even if she's taking time off why do this for the kids?"

"We need answers right now to what happened to her," demanded a royal fan. Another pondered, "I don’t think it’s Photoshop, I think it’s AI. AI steals imagery from other online photos, and manipulates it. Plus, it didn’t check out when I ran it through software."

"ALL KP had to do was show a clean photo to AP, Reuters etc. That photo, before 'manipulation' would not have been released. It would just serve to authenticate the published picture. This video is v plausible & probably why KP refused. Because everything about it is a lie," noted a person. 

One shared, "My analysis of the kate middleton photo saga is that they took her face from the vogue cover she did years ago and edited it in."

This article contains remarks made on the Internet by individual people and organizations. MEAWW cannot confirm them independently and does not support claims or opinions being made online.