Over the course of 36 hours, Kensington Palace completely lost credibility with the national and international media and they proved yet again, for the millionth time, that they cannot crisis-manage their way out of a wet paper bag. To recap, KP released a photo of the Princess of Wales and her three children for Mother’s Day in the UK. The photo was released early Sunday morning, in the hope that the proof of life would quell some of the speculation about Kate’s health status and whereabouts. As soon as the photo was released, people could not stop pointing out how weirdly Photoshopped and bizarre the whole thing looked, and others commented that it didn’t even look like a recent photo. By Sunday evening, AFP, Reuters, Getty and Associated Press all “killed” the image, meaning they wouldn’t distribute it or publish such a “manipulated” photo. Monday morning, the Press Association joined the kill order too.

For about 14 hours, Kensington Palace stayed silent, refusing to answer calls from journalists and refusing to speak to the photo agencies requesting clarification on the image. Then, finally, a statement, allegedly from Kate, where “she” said that she edited the photo which was allegedly taken by William. In the NYT’s coverage of this mess, they noted that Kensington Palace was insisting that William “had taken the photo last week in Windsor” and that “A palace official said Catherine made minor adjustments in what was meant to be an informal picture of the family together for Mother’s Day. The official reiterated that William had taken the photo, though Catherine edited it.” Just lies on top of lies. And now this – Kensington Palace is flatly refusing to release an unedited version of the photo.

Kensington Palace has refused to release the original Mother’s Day portrait of the Princess of Wales and her children – after Kate publicly took the blame for editing the family photograph.

The Palace had come under mounting pressure to reveal the truth behind the photo after the world’s top picture agencies – including the Press Association – ‘killed’ the image over claims it had been digitally manipulated.

Kate this morning admitted that she had edited the photograph and issued a personal apology ‘for any confusion’ it had caused. The photo of the mother-of-three beaming with Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis was the first official picture released of the princess since she underwent ‘planned abdominal surgery’ in January.

Despite calls for the original to be published, Kensington Palace said it would not be reissuing the unedited photograph of Kate and her children.

[From The Daily Mail]

Why wouldn’t the palace just release an unedited photo, one might ask. It couldn’t have been that bad, right? Except I’m really starting to wonder if the whole thing is a lie. Like, I kind of believed that it was probably an older photo which they repurposed for this, and William stupidly took credit for taking the pic, and palace dumbasses did a sh-tty job of editing it. But now I wonder if there even is an “original photo” which could conceivably be released.

The Telegraph did a surprisingly thorough breakdown of all of the inconsistencies in the photo too – you can go here to read. They call it “significantly doctored.” There’s even a suggestion (quickly denied by their expert) that they used AI.

Omid Scobie has done some good tweets too. I keep thinking about how William’s new private secretary started about one month ago. This is what happens when you surround yourself with Tory yes-men.

Update: They hustled Kate into a car with William and arranged for shadowy photos.

Photos courtesy of Kensington Palace.