Kate Middleton’s long absence sparked conspiracy theories due to public’s loss of trust in royal family, claim experts

LONDON, ENGLAND: Kate Middleton’s edited photo has reportedly caused irreparable damage to the public’s trust in the royal family.

Following the Princess of Wales’ planned abdominal surgery in January 2023, the 42-year-old mother-of-two went away from the public eye leading to speculations about her whereabouts.

In the recently published TMZ documentary ‘Where’s Kate Middleton?’ experts and journalists are weighing in on the theory that the British royal family has damaged their credibility and broken the public’s trust following the Mother’s Day image scandal.

They all agree that a loss of faith in the royal family is what fueled so many conspiracy theories.

Experts comment on Palace’s responsibility for photo fiasco

After Kate shared a genial family photograph of her with her three children on the occasion of the UK’s Mother’s Day on March 10, social media went into a frenzy.

Soon the frenzy took a concerning turn as the photo was served with “kill notices” by six leading photo-hosting sites who pulled down the photo citing heavy editing on the owner’s part.

A day after the fiasco, the much-beloved royal took to the official hand of the Kensington Palace to apologize for the photo and blamed the flawed editing to her amateur photographic skills. 

Recently, a paparazzi photo of Kate surfaced on the Internet where the future queen could be seen visiting the farm market with her husband Prince William. 

However, according to the experts, all of these events together have paved the way for the public to lose their collective trust on the royal family, per The Mirror.

David Jorgenson, a senior reporter for The Washington Post, spoke in the new documentary that aired Thursday, March 21 night, that the recent photo of Kate walking with William in the farm market did nothing but increase the intrigue. He opined that since the palace has not addressed the issue, it has just aggravated the mistrust.

Paul Burrell, former butler to Princess Diana, while commenting on Kate’s importance in the family, reflected on the crisis. Burrell admitted, "I want them to pull through this crisis. I want them to show the world that everything is well within the house of Wales and I want them to go forward because they are our hope for the future. Without them - without Kate - the Royal Family is finished."

Simultaneously, royal correspondent, Ellie Hall, too used the medium to voice her concerns regarding Kate’s absence from the public eye. 

Hall commented on the photograph where Kate was pictured in the car alongside her mother Carole Middleton and pointed out several things from her appearance (including her hair, sunglasses, and face) that provide fodder for conspiracy theories.

Piers Morgan attacks Palace for losing public trust

Piers Morgan too shared his point of view regarding Kate Middleton’s long absence. He called out the palace for releasing the heavily-edited photo to make people believe Kate is doing well.

"None of it makes sense," said the ‘Piers Morgan Uncensored’ host before explaining, "The people I blame for this are the palace press team. What were they thinking passing this on to the world's media without making basic checks?"

The 58-year-old media honcho fired at the palace’s decision to allow the heavily-edited photo to get released. He slammed, "The very last thing you should do is issue a picture which has 16-17 edits to it that we know of.”

He even commented on Kate’s later apology post on X (formerly Twitter) and said, "Why is she taking all this time on a Friday night to self edit a picture that is extremely important?” 

Morgan continued, "You wonder if everything is fine," and added, "Seems very strange that you'd go through all those edits." 

Referring to a close source of the Princess who allegedly shared with him that the Princess did not look like her photo’s self during the time the photo was supposedly taken.

"I don't believe that's an accurate depiction of how she looked at the time," concluded the journalist.