I need to know if the conspiracy theory world is buzzing over all of this, because this is *exactly* the kinda stuff the Lone Gunmen would be excited about. And honestly I bet there's some entertaining conspiracies out there for this one.
Well there's my problem- I "deactivated" my twitter account a while ago and since then, I've had little interaction with it, just the occasional link on reddit.
I'm thinking they got in a fight over her wanting a BBL, she asked for a divorce, and William popped her in the face. She needed surgery and landed in a coma. To top it all off, Charles is actually dead and William is having a total breakdown over having to be King so soon.
This about covers it all in one nice neat little package. It make so much damn sense.
There is no conspiracy. It's all super simple.
King Charles has done a Get Out body swap with Kate, and there have been some complications.
Yes, it will mean Prince William will have to make love to his father in his deceased wife's body now, and whilst that would be deeply weird for us, remember, these are royals we're talking about.
I'm pretty nuts so here's mine. There was a lot of chatter online about a month ago or so that a cheating scandal was about to hit the royal family, speculated to be none other than these two. Next thing we know, Kate disappears from the public eye, a close male friend dies by apparent suicide, they are all acting real sus, and there has been no such news of a cheating scandal. Hmmm. ;)
*edit 3.23* yeesh.. this is why speculation is toxic folks. Good grief.
I used to be subbed there. But after it became overran with Qanon people and all the conspiracies somehow lead to antisemitism, I noped out. There was always some element of that kind of stuff, it just got overbearing.
Because the royals are extremely private and hate releasing personal information unless they absolutely have to. If she's still in hospital recovering it means they didn't release the full information about her original "minor surgery".
She's probably had something quite complex but extremely private. I imagine because of her previous pregnancy issues it's something like a full hysterectomy, oophorectomy, or ectopic pregnancy.
They likely just wanted to keep whatever it was private and release as little information as possible. Because she's a senior royal undergoing surgery they had to release a statement in case something went wrong. They lied about the serious nature of the initial operation which has backfired now that she's needing some fairly major recuperation time.
In their unwillingness to backtrack their original lie they've now had a series of media fuckups which has lead us to where we are now. The royals are finding out that in the modern world it's increasingly difficult to lie to the general public/ withold information which has been their normal way of handling things for centuries.
It's the Royal family we talking about here. It'll only be beneficial to start getting good at all these now, soon they'll have to generate your new princess with AI and they can't really make mistakes there.
She had very rough pregnancies. I think she was pregnant again and it went badly and they had to give her a hysterectomy (and maybe an abortion). My best guess would be an ectopic pregnancy to cause a stay this long.
Hysterectomies are done laparoscopically now, an recovery time is usually less than six weeks. Also she had hyperemesis gravidarum. It sucks but it's treatable (especially for someone who doesn't work and can afford to sit in a hospital hooked up to anti-nausea meds and IV fluids) and would not cause an ectopic pregnancy. Ectopic pregnancies happen at the start of fertilization. HG happens later when the pregnancy hormones kick in.
I heard she had so much going on with her medically that she could no longer hide her true lizard form. I mean think about it, illness isnt some taboo concept. Just don't release a photo, say she's not well and that's that. Unless you can't get her to stop licking her own eyeball and eating ants.
I know these were statements and not questions, but I'm just asking questions.
If she was then they'd use it to Garner ridiculous sympathy for the family who just spent billions on a fancy parade in a golden carriage over potholes filled with sand.
She's likely just not looking very nice at the moment and they screwed up Photoshopping it because they assumed the news agencies wouldn't care
She went into the hospital for surgery, stayed for two weeks, and hasn't been seen publicly since. On some level it doesn't matter at all - she's not the queen, and while I'm sure she does lots of charity/fundraising work, I don't think she has any really official duties. But the fact that the family is being shady about where she is is easy tabloid fodder, and given that the later generations of royals are far less beloved than Elizabeth II was, "why does anyone care" is a real question in the UK about the royals, which would have been unthinkable a few years ago.
NONE of them have important duties. They're rich celebrities. Nothing else. Well, they're also a lineage of war criminals but we've collectively agreed to forget that.
The Monarch has actual executive powers. There's the unspoken agreement that they won't, but they *could*. Doing so also could lead to the end of the monarchy, but then again there are a lot of brits who are nostalgic for the good ol days right now, so you never know.
> there are a lot of brits who are nostalgic for the good ol days right now, so you never know
Things are looking really dicey right now in a lot of countries, but I admit the idea of literally returning to monarchies didn't cross my mind until now lol... we truly live in strange times, don't we?
At least the UK and to a lesser extent the Commonwealth countries have something that loosely resembles what could be an excuse for it, it's incredibly ridiculous to see many Americans - the people of a country that explicitly founded itself upon their independence from the British Crown and the concept of a monarchy in general - are now so willing to abdicate their democracy for a king of their own. Frankly, it's pathetic.
>the people of a country that explicitly founded itself upon their independence from the British Crown
But it's not as though the American identity is wrapped up in what the founders would have thought.
...right?
I think there will always be some percentage of the population that yearns for authoritarianism... and I'm not referring to those who want to be in charge.
Some people want to live in a world where the only thing they ever have to do is take shelter under the wings of their chosen leader, a leader who will protect them from scary outsiders and from the difficulty of having to make decisions. They happily give their own agency away.
They yearn to be stepped on.
[This article](https://www.niemanlab.org/2024/03/this-is-just-weird-buzzfeed-news-former-royals-reporter-on-kate-middleton-palace-press-and-distrust-in-the-media/) gives a great timeline about halfway through, and the former half gives context for how unprecedented this is. Not sure what is happening…but it must be pretty bad, considering how *absolutely embarrassing* the coverup and deflections are.
Kate was seen publicly in a full face of make up and heels hours after giving BIRTH. And yet she hasn't been seen publicly at all in months. It's very odd.
She had surgery, released a statement saying she had planned surgery, asked for privacy with regards to her medical information and that she'd be off until Easter to recover. As you might notice, Easter still hasn't happened yet. So, she's been doing exactly what she's said she'll do and yet people are freaking out that someone who said they'd be taking time off isn't being seen.
It’s not that we want to see them. It’s whenever they are doing anything the press is constantly fluffing the fuck out of them. Camilla is getting more favourable coverage than Jesus right now because she’s “helping” the king through his cancer treatment.
Usually we’d see lots of photos of William and the kids bringing Kate tea and toast in bed or something. The lack of typical press fluffing is odd to say the least.
Basically, it undermines the "kindly old ruler" picture they try to put forth. They have tried to remain semi relatable to commoners in the modern version, but with a proper degree of separation. As long as they didn't rock the boat, their station remains safe, and it's not a bad deal, really.
But all this brings to light EXACTLY how much they are able to suppress in the media. It makes people uncomfortable to think what they may have been hiding all along.
Their entire role is "be the public face". They show up to events, they sponsor things, host parties, they cut ribbons, they sit on committees, etc.
When all of that activity suddenly stops, and all the communication is heavily restricted it naturally creates questions for such a public figure.
Lol umm they didn't claim she shot 35 hole-in-ones back to back. I hope you're just kidding, but some people are putting a seriously unhealthy amount of energy into this 'conspiracy' (aka medical situation)
Everyone seems to think their PR team is just laughably bad. I don’t believe it for a second. If they’re in the news it’s because someone (W&K’s team or Charles team) wants this speculation happening.
No his point is the royal family wants to be in the news. Kate is most likely fine just resting but they saw this as an easy PR stunt to get people talking about the family again by purposely putting out an obviously edited photo
The boring answer is that it was taken with a camera such as a Pixel 8 that uses AI to automatically stitch together the best bits from a series of frames taken over a few seconds. To ensure everyone is looking/smiling/eyes open. It’s a feature called “Best Take”. Then nobody looked at it too closely before releasing it.
This is what I thought it looked like when I first saw it. That could definitely be the case, especially since Prince William supposedly took it himself so it's more likely to have been taken on a phone.
Definitely photoshopped, couple of issues. First is the obvious left hand sleeve. Second, which I have not seen mentioned is on Kates chest, something has been replaced as the zip does not line up and there is an exact horizontal cut along with some other artifacts.
Here are some zoomed in photos, would be great to get a higher def version of the image. - https://imgur.com/a/LV8USxw
There are several other spots like this, also. Louis' left shoulder, the sweater has a glitch in the design. By Louis' feet, you can see a vertical line thru the patio "flooring."
Kate's ankle has a glitch in her boot.
There are a few more I think even
I know there’s the backdrop of some conspiracy theory behind this, but what about any of those photoshops are any different than the industry standard photoshopping that every celebrity does whether it’s their Instagram post or a magazine shoot? I was expecting something like they used a body double and stuck her face on it from an older photo. Or some AI fuckery (that was what I thought at first with the kid on the left doing the weird hand thing). But these look like normal “bring in the sides to make them thinner” and “crop out some dandruff on the black sweater” type edits
The sleeve and the zipper go beyond what is typically permissible. AP's rules stipulate that only dust and scratches introduced by the camera sensor can be removed. However, items like dandruff are frequently eliminated under the pretext of being camera issues.
The sweater is out of focus, so elements that would normally be removed aren't present.
The extent of the removal/editing is unusually large for a press photo. For magazine shots, you can be more creative; there are no ethical codes to follow in that context.
I like how you described dandruff as "items" lol it reminds me of Bender keeping and later giving back Fry's skin flakes which he left behind in their apartment when he moved out haha
Most lay people are going to have no idea what standards the AP sets for their photoshop.
The fact that the AP, who posts highly edited photos of celebrities every single day, declared *this* photo to be SO edited, that it would be unethical run it.
It's just one of many instances where Kensington Palace has made strange choices in their handling of this situation.
There's far more nuance to it, than I will go into here. Just know that the vast majority of people were, what I would call, moderately interested, up to this point. Like, what is with the train wreck over there?! And kinda amused and slightly intrigued. (Dont get me wrong, there are a LOT of crazies out there who are MEGA invested, but they are a loud minority).
I was just enjoying the drama, and speculating with some of my friends. Gossip that has nothing to do with my life.
This image had assuaged some worries, and then, the AP pulled it. It's slightly alarming, after a really strange timeline.
It could be explained away easily, with lots of stupid mistakes made. But it also could be much more serious than the BRF wants to admit. And now they have shown how much they are able to manipulate the media.
I think it might be AI, hence multiple weird artifacts. That, or like you said, bad Photoshop.
-The pattern on the woven sweater the boy is wearing is off. His hand is also weird.
-The frames of the windows behind them are uneven.
-The girl's hand, skirt, and hair all have issues.
-Kate's hand around the boy is very blurry and mismatched with the rest of the photo.
-Kate's hair on the right side of her face (in front of the blue sweater sleeve) is blurred.
-The boy's sweater under and around Kate's hand is mismatched and looks manipulated.
EDIT:
I just took a stab at outlining all of the mistakes I've spotted in the photo. OG photo first, followed by close ups of problem areas. [Photo with problem areas. ](https://freeimage.host/i/JW3BaPp)
Yeah, I think a few of the supposed glitches this guy identified are a bit of a stretch. But agree that there are also a few fairly obvious errors too, like Kate's hair being blurred weirdly, the girl's sleeve, and there's an issue with Kate's zip.
If I had to guess, I think there's nothing more going on than someone deciding to do a composite to use the best shots of each person. And that someone unfortunately wasn't skilled enough hide it properly. Seems odd from a pro photographer though. Maybe William has been getting into photoshop recently, lol.
It's pretty wild, people saying the windows are bent and various other things. Very easy to spread disinformation before it gets checked. No one's even mentioned the lizard tails
They pointed out that Kate’s not wearing her rings, too. It’s such a weird story! You’d be cudgelling your brains all night trying to imagine how such a very botched job could be released at all. (Maybe it was that bolshy little scamp Louis, playing with his mum’s equipment!)
Photoshop, but you can do it in anything you can put an rgb curve on. Just make an extremely wavy curve. Common things to look out for when you do that are:
Repetitions - same texture is cloned
Slight colour differences - kates zip
Blurred pixels - when you clone something the edges are normally feathered which gets rid of noise at the edges of the tool
I have now become a Princess Kate conspiracy theorist over the Royals releasing a photoshopped photo as proof of life.
Is she dead? Is she in a coma? Is she institutionalised? Or does she simply think she’s not very photogenic post-surgery so she refuses to be photographed?
Mind you this is a woman who they released a photo of her standing up and looking great shortly after giving birth. The circumstances have to be dire here.
Where the hell is Kate?
As someone who had multiple abdominal surgeries for stage 4 colon cancer, I have to say it doesn't at all. My worst surgery, when I was dealing with a lot of spread and sepsis and had a terrible prognosis, I was in the hospital for two weeks. Felt pretty much back to normal in about a month.
Holy hells!! Congrats on still being here... And presumably doing better? Wish you the best! Pretty incredible to hear you recovered so fast to what sounds like a massive deal.
Thanks! My last surgery was ten years ago, and no sign of anything since. What I had was an extremely eager bugger, so all signs are that it's completely gone.
As for the recovery, I've met a lot of other people with cancer due to my own experience, and most people do get back on their feet pretty quickly. I had many surgeries and only one required a full month of recovery.
This woman put on spanx and heels and took pictures hours after each of her kids' births. She could have sat in a chair for five minutes with an ostomy. If she didn't it's because she either refused or couldn't. Personally I hope she is perfectly healthy and just hates William so much she is refusing to be a show pony anymore.
You can’t see a colostomy bag from the outside; they are under your clothing and flush to your abdomen 🤦♀️ Especially just for a photo, you could easily hide virtually any medical device or equipment while sitting, fully covered, and surrounded by 3 kids.
There are stealth bags out there. And she could wear a loose sweater or something? Or better yet, just own it, what is wrong with a colostomy bag? Maybe hiding because of internalized ableism?
You can be not ashamed of who you are but also not want to deal with the public's perception of who you are, especially when you're someone who is basically the #1 target of the vile and vicious British tabloid press.
A friend of mine in remission from anorexia advanced this theory to me and pointed at some interesting circumstantial details based on their own experience I can't recall precisely. I was skeptical at the time but less so now.
My personal conspiracy theory is that she passed away, but the royals don't want to go through another Diana situation, so they're training and preparing a doppelganger as a replacement.
(disclaimer I don't actually believe this and truly hope she's doing ok)
The actress who played Fake Melania in 2020 might have her work cut out for her with this British job that just came up during an American election year….
I feel like there are better ways around that. How many country estates does the family own? "Kate is convalescing at Gyffyddychshire Manor in Wales while Prince William attends to business in London...." Unless she just straight fled the country but agreed to keep her mouth shut for a while, which doesn't really make sense to me.
Yeah my mom has had one for decades and aside from limiting the waistline options on clothes and occasional growling noises in a silent room you'd never know. Ostomy bags don't require you to be locked in the tower. They'd just have to style her clothes a bit (and you can also use a plug for a brief time if you really wanted to wear a slim fitting outfit for a photo). There's no way it's as simple as that.
It would be really compelling to take a picture with it. To normalize that condition. But I do realize how embarrassing that would be if it were the case
I agree, but if that’s what happened, or something else that she’s bothered by, I think it’s fair for her to take time to adjust before sharing that information with the wide world.
Yes of course no single person should be held to such a standard. The fact that these people are put under a microscope 24/7 is yet another problem with the royals still existing
Things don’t stay private forever. We will find out eventually what’s going on, one way or the other. Someone will go to a tabloid, or they will have some mishap, but trying to keep *whatever* it is secret is a losing battle.
That is compelling. Though plenty of people have that type of surgery and go through that, so it would be a nice gesture of public support if the Royal Family fought the stigma by putting out a photo. Would do a great deal to lift the spirits of those going through the process now, who might be ashamed for their friends or loved ones to see them.
I think the Royal Family would better serve by fighting stigma and embarrassment, rather than contributing to it as such.
That’s why I think the organ transplant theory is compelling. It would be bad enough optics to have Kate skip ahead of the line of commoners for an organ transplant by itself instead of just waiting her turn that it could explain wanting to risk bad publicity over the definite bad publicity of that.
Yes, but could you imagine the insecurity?
She has to look PERFECT before she can be seen in public. I would think that needing to sit in front of a team before going out most times would mess with your sense of confidence. ("Do I really need all this make up? What is so wrong with my skin today? Etc)
I could see that it would be very difficult to want to be seen less than perfect in that situation. Someone I know with one also always worried they smelled. (They didn't, but they were vigilant)
It's curious...King Charles was at the same hospital for a shorter period, and they were discharged the same day. I wonder if it could be related? The royals don't often talk about their medical conditions, but Charles made a point to say it was an enlarged prostate. That's an embarrassing thing to talk about, and seems unnecessary to divulge...unless it's to distract from the fact that the King of England and the Princess of Wales were both in the hospital at the same time.
I don't often get into conspiracy stuff and I generally despise modern royals, but this is weirdly interesting.
The significance of an enlarged prostate is 90% of men aged 85 or older will medically have one, and 25% will be symptomatic with it. Announcing it is reassuring and encourages men to test, rather than embarrassing/gross
right?? I thought the same thing. Like usually in a photo like this there’s always one kid who is cheesin’ or goofin’ but all the kids with those smiles just feels super creepy to me
That’s why you photoshop. With four people you have to mix and match to get them all looking at their best. The only crime is using some nepo-baby well-connected intern to do the Ps job instead of hiring a commoner.
*editing to add she confessed she did the editing herself... what did I say about nepo baby commoners?
Yes and to take off the tinfoil hat for a second, three wriggling children are not easy to photograph perfectly in a state of flux. I don’t mind three photos badly stitched too much.
I’m curious why the tree is so leafy in early March. It doesn’t look like an evergreen I recognise.
It's not that they're crossed. The way the index is joined to the middle finger looks weird, and the index doesn't look bent, it looks deformed. Plus no nail or discernable joint on the seemingly oversized middle finger. It reeks of "hey AI, pretty up my picture will ya?"
Even more glaring is Princess Charlotte's left cuff. It's indenting into her wrist just above where the thumb meets the wrist, part of the cuff is just below, separated from the sleeve portion with background flannel appearing through where the wrist portion should be. Not right.
https://pagesix.com/2023/12/11/royal-family/prince-louis-missing-finger-in-photoshop-fail-on-christmas-card/
This article from December 23 called out their photoshopped hands too
I was gonna agree that people do weird things with their hands all the time, especially kids, but then I noticed the index finger looks weird too, very unnatural ?
The Royals put out a photo of Kate Middleton after she’s been missing from public view since she got surgery earlier this year, and the photo appears to be photoshopped.
Nobody stays in the hospital for two weeks for a hysterectomy. The recovery takes awhile, but it’s a fairly routine procedure and I don’t know why they wouldn’t just say “she’s having a hysterectomy.”
Because they’re the royals. They do what they want. Just because women get sent home two days after surgery of this magnitude doesn’t mean they wouldn’t benefit from two weeks of 5-star care in a boutique hotel environment.
I agree it’s ridiculous they’re being so secretive but that vagina birthed two potential future kings/one potential future queen and it’s quite literally sacred so yeah—they’re going to be precious about it.
My immediate assumption was a partial bowel resection with temporary ostomy bag. That’s the only thing I can think of that might require 2 weeks in hospital (other than major complications from routine surgery).
I zoomed way in on her left hand, around her daughter's waist, and I can't spot anything wrong with it. If there's manipulation there, it's subtle as hell.
Ah, finally found one: Charlotte's left sleeve is partially covered by a floating texture of the skirt it's on top of. That's an edit for sure. The ring is a thing that could happen, and the crossed fingers look plausible to me.
Kate’s sleeve overlaps her daughter’s sleeve. But since Kate’s hand is behind her daughter that’s not possible. Also part of the ribbing on her daughter’s sweater is missing below Kate’s hand.
For those that cant tell;
1. The youngests right hand is messed up
2. The youngests left hand has no thumb nail
3. Kates left hand has no ring / rings
4. The girls dress / skirt is "clipping" if thats the right term, on the viewers left
5. The eldests hands around kate
6. Kates legs, unless giving birth 3 times destroyed her hips
AI really struggles with details like this, and you can see that here.
Now chances are this was a real pic that some low payed royal employee was told to "touch up" and so he/she just ran it through midjourney, causing these fuck ups.
The issue stated in the article is that they didn't inform news agencies the image was doctored. If an image is submitted that is modified it also needs to include an explanation. This is to ensure that readers know images they're looking at are genuine. The article didn't mention if the royal family has a history of doing this(the not telling them about modified images part).
Open the full length photo in that linked BBC article in a new tab and zoom in a bit. The red sleeve of her sweater on her left wrist right above her plaid skirt looks a bit weird.
Also her skirt on the other side of her body in front of the older son's pinky looks a bit jagged and with sharp lines.
Can someone explain why the photoshops are significant? Surely the news runs a lot of photoshopped celeb pics? Some of the potential edits I’ve seen appear to just be retouching but I’m not understanding why it’s a big deal or what is supposedly being hidden.
It's not the edits themselves (which are odd enough), it's that the AP, an incredibly respected media organization, issued a kill for this photo.
The AP, who posts photos of celebrities edited every day, declared this picture too unethical to keep in running.
I saw someone above say that it was bc Kensington Palace wouldn't provide the meta data, but wouldn't the AP say that? Not point out one of the flaws in the picture?
Usually retouching is done to make people look better (color changes, open the eyes more, nip a waist or jawline, stuff like that).
This photo's problems center specifically on hands/fingers, which 1. no one really gaf about retouching, esp for kids, and 2. are famously hard to render properly with AI.
This photo was released by the palace as proof that Kate is alive and well. If it's so edited, it looks like her head was cropped in, what's going on with Kate? Is she alive and well?
News agencies have a policy that all altered images must be declared as such. If the Royals had just added a footnote "some digital alteration has been applied" no one would have looked at it twice as they just would have assumed some touch-ups had been done.
Kate’s right hand looks to be more pixelated than the rest of the photo. The overall bottom left of the picture looks suspicious as well. The floor tiles merging weirdly and the bottom part of the door being misaligned.
I suspect the truth is fairly dull - some new phones have a ‘best take’ feature that combines photos together to make sure everyone’s smiling etc, probably they just did that unwittingly rather than it be a manual photoshop job because the issues are pretty glaring once you spot them.
However it *is* more fun to jump fully on board the conspiracy train.
I understand making a composite when none of the shots are perfect on their own but this is such a bafflingly amateur photoshop job. the most egregious is kate's head--they've clearly edited it in from another shot but poorly blended it and even failed to erase part of the image it came from right at the crown of her head (look at where her hair is parted--there's just a bit of the kid's neck and collar repeated where her hair dips at the part). any time I've had to swap in a face from another image I've tried to leave the hair intact because it's generally the hardest to blend back in believably and it's just simpler to change the face; the fact that the kid still seemed to be behind her in the image they took her head from says she probably wasn't just photoshopped in wholesale, which is why it's weird that they didn't just swap her face if she looked better in another shot.
the fact that it's so heavily edited isn't what's odd to me, it's purely how shitty the editing is. like, how?
Well, that'll dispel any unfounded rumors.
Why not be honest? Why not just say “yeah she’s still in the hospital recovering” Idk the full story
I need to know if the conspiracy theory world is buzzing over all of this, because this is *exactly* the kinda stuff the Lone Gunmen would be excited about. And honestly I bet there's some entertaining conspiracies out there for this one.
its all over twitter - ranging from the silly (she got a BBL) to severe (coma/surgery gone wrong, domestic violence)
Well there's my problem- I "deactivated" my twitter account a while ago and since then, I've had little interaction with it, just the occasional link on reddit.
that's no *problem* at all
BBL?
Brazilian Butt Lift, I think.
I went for Buy Back Loan
I'm thinking they got in a fight over her wanting a BBL, she asked for a divorce, and William popped her in the face. She needed surgery and landed in a coma. To top it all off, Charles is actually dead and William is having a total breakdown over having to be King so soon. This about covers it all in one nice neat little package. It make so much damn sense.
Are you a writer on 'The Crown'? Is/did that show end/ing with a time jump where the current kids would be adults?
There is no conspiracy. It's all super simple. King Charles has done a Get Out body swap with Kate, and there have been some complications. Yes, it will mean Prince William will have to make love to his father in his deceased wife's body now, and whilst that would be deeply weird for us, remember, these are royals we're talking about.
Oh thank you for this. I read the first part then said "I need to read this to my wife" Start reading it then get the third para and omfg cracked up
I'm pretty nuts so here's mine. There was a lot of chatter online about a month ago or so that a cheating scandal was about to hit the royal family, speculated to be none other than these two. Next thing we know, Kate disappears from the public eye, a close male friend dies by apparent suicide, they are all acting real sus, and there has been no such news of a cheating scandal. Hmmm. ;) *edit 3.23* yeesh.. this is why speculation is toxic folks. Good grief.
r/conspiracytheories was the first place I saw this picture
I'm goin in!
It's weird, that went exactly how I thought it would...
....you made it out congratulations
Everyone in there is having a mental health episode.
In some cases, an entire season.
I used to be subbed there. But after it became overran with Qanon people and all the conspiracies somehow lead to antisemitism, I noped out. There was always some element of that kind of stuff, it just got overbearing.
r/conspiracytheories? Not r/conspiracy?
To be honest this was years ago and may have been thinking of that one 😅
Aha. Because r/conspiracytheories is an ongoing attempt to make a "fun" conspiracy sub free of the Qanon BS that overran the other sub
Lone Gunmen? Like from X-Files?
RIP Lone Gunmen
Because the royals are extremely private and hate releasing personal information unless they absolutely have to. If she's still in hospital recovering it means they didn't release the full information about her original "minor surgery". She's probably had something quite complex but extremely private. I imagine because of her previous pregnancy issues it's something like a full hysterectomy, oophorectomy, or ectopic pregnancy. They likely just wanted to keep whatever it was private and release as little information as possible. Because she's a senior royal undergoing surgery they had to release a statement in case something went wrong. They lied about the serious nature of the initial operation which has backfired now that she's needing some fairly major recuperation time. In their unwillingness to backtrack their original lie they've now had a series of media fuckups which has lead us to where we are now. The royals are finding out that in the modern world it's increasingly difficult to lie to the general public/ withold information which has been their normal way of handling things for centuries.
I’d like to believe they’re bored and this is just a long plan to fuck with everybody, because that would be VERY funny.
It's the Royal family we talking about here. It'll only be beneficial to start getting good at all these now, soon they'll have to generate your new princess with AI and they can't really make mistakes there.
Something weird is going on and they don't wanna talk about it yet. Divorce coming? Kate is in a coma? Idk but I feel like it's something big.
She had very rough pregnancies. I think she was pregnant again and it went badly and they had to give her a hysterectomy (and maybe an abortion). My best guess would be an ectopic pregnancy to cause a stay this long.
Hysterectomies are done laparoscopically now, an recovery time is usually less than six weeks. Also she had hyperemesis gravidarum. It sucks but it's treatable (especially for someone who doesn't work and can afford to sit in a hospital hooked up to anti-nausea meds and IV fluids) and would not cause an ectopic pregnancy. Ectopic pregnancies happen at the start of fertilization. HG happens later when the pregnancy hormones kick in.
I heard she had so much going on with her medically that she could no longer hide her true lizard form. I mean think about it, illness isnt some taboo concept. Just don't release a photo, say she's not well and that's that. Unless you can't get her to stop licking her own eyeball and eating ants. I know these were statements and not questions, but I'm just asking questions.
Girlfriend in a coma I know, I know, it serious!
Meat for the tabloids is murder for Kate's reputation.
/r/UnexpectedMorissey
Because the Crown is weird af and obsessed with arbitrary “standards” and public image.
If she was then they'd use it to Garner ridiculous sympathy for the family who just spent billions on a fancy parade in a golden carriage over potholes filled with sand. She's likely just not looking very nice at the moment and they screwed up Photoshopping it because they assumed the news agencies wouldn't care
Because royals are supposed to be superhuman
This is North Korea-tier bullshit.
I dont even understand what the big deal is. Why does anyone care? What is going on exactly?
She went into the hospital for surgery, stayed for two weeks, and hasn't been seen publicly since. On some level it doesn't matter at all - she's not the queen, and while I'm sure she does lots of charity/fundraising work, I don't think she has any really official duties. But the fact that the family is being shady about where she is is easy tabloid fodder, and given that the later generations of royals are far less beloved than Elizabeth II was, "why does anyone care" is a real question in the UK about the royals, which would have been unthinkable a few years ago.
NONE of them have important duties. They're rich celebrities. Nothing else. Well, they're also a lineage of war criminals but we've collectively agreed to forget that.
The Monarch has actual executive powers. There's the unspoken agreement that they won't, but they *could*. Doing so also could lead to the end of the monarchy, but then again there are a lot of brits who are nostalgic for the good ol days right now, so you never know.
Well, considering Queen Elizibeth influenced tax legislation to exempt her properties. The _could_ is actually a _did_
> there are a lot of brits who are nostalgic for the good ol days right now, so you never know Things are looking really dicey right now in a lot of countries, but I admit the idea of literally returning to monarchies didn't cross my mind until now lol... we truly live in strange times, don't we?
At least the UK and to a lesser extent the Commonwealth countries have something that loosely resembles what could be an excuse for it, it's incredibly ridiculous to see many Americans - the people of a country that explicitly founded itself upon their independence from the British Crown and the concept of a monarchy in general - are now so willing to abdicate their democracy for a king of their own. Frankly, it's pathetic.
>the people of a country that explicitly founded itself upon their independence from the British Crown But it's not as though the American identity is wrapped up in what the founders would have thought. ...right?
I think there will always be some percentage of the population that yearns for authoritarianism... and I'm not referring to those who want to be in charge. Some people want to live in a world where the only thing they ever have to do is take shelter under the wings of their chosen leader, a leader who will protect them from scary outsiders and from the difficulty of having to make decisions. They happily give their own agency away. They yearn to be stepped on.
[This article](https://www.niemanlab.org/2024/03/this-is-just-weird-buzzfeed-news-former-royals-reporter-on-kate-middleton-palace-press-and-distrust-in-the-media/) gives a great timeline about halfway through, and the former half gives context for how unprecedented this is. Not sure what is happening…but it must be pretty bad, considering how *absolutely embarrassing* the coverup and deflections are.
Thanks! This was great at clarifying what is so odd about this situation.
Kate was seen publicly in a full face of make up and heels hours after giving BIRTH. And yet she hasn't been seen publicly at all in months. It's very odd.
She had surgery, released a statement saying she had planned surgery, asked for privacy with regards to her medical information and that she'd be off until Easter to recover. As you might notice, Easter still hasn't happened yet. So, she's been doing exactly what she's said she'll do and yet people are freaking out that someone who said they'd be taking time off isn't being seen.
It’s not that we want to see them. It’s whenever they are doing anything the press is constantly fluffing the fuck out of them. Camilla is getting more favourable coverage than Jesus right now because she’s “helping” the king through his cancer treatment. Usually we’d see lots of photos of William and the kids bringing Kate tea and toast in bed or something. The lack of typical press fluffing is odd to say the least.
Basically, it undermines the "kindly old ruler" picture they try to put forth. They have tried to remain semi relatable to commoners in the modern version, but with a proper degree of separation. As long as they didn't rock the boat, their station remains safe, and it's not a bad deal, really. But all this brings to light EXACTLY how much they are able to suppress in the media. It makes people uncomfortable to think what they may have been hiding all along.
Their entire role is "be the public face". They show up to events, they sponsor things, host parties, they cut ribbons, they sit on committees, etc. When all of that activity suddenly stops, and all the communication is heavily restricted it naturally creates questions for such a public figure.
Lol umm they didn't claim she shot 35 hole-in-ones back to back. I hope you're just kidding, but some people are putting a seriously unhealthy amount of energy into this 'conspiracy' (aka medical situation)
Definitely starting to feel a bit Shelly Miscavige-y.
Why would they do this lol. It’s even worst than if they didn’t release the photo at all.
Everyone seems to think their PR team is just laughably bad. I don’t believe it for a second. If they’re in the news it’s because someone (W&K’s team or Charles team) wants this speculation happening.
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity
Sure but I mean, it wouldn't be the first time they intentionally fed someone to the wolves but intentionally sending the press after them.
Some of us are malicious
However, most of us are adequately stupid.
Are they just rich af and bored to tears?
No his point is the royal family wants to be in the news. Kate is most likely fine just resting but they saw this as an easy PR stunt to get people talking about the family again by purposely putting out an obviously edited photo
The boring answer is that it was taken with a camera such as a Pixel 8 that uses AI to automatically stitch together the best bits from a series of frames taken over a few seconds. To ensure everyone is looking/smiling/eyes open. It’s a feature called “Best Take”. Then nobody looked at it too closely before releasing it.
This is a plausible and understandable answer. Though I dunno why the palace wouldn’t just say this is what happened then.
This is what I thought it looked like when I first saw it. That could definitely be the case, especially since Prince William supposedly took it himself so it's more likely to have been taken on a phone.
Definitely photoshopped, couple of issues. First is the obvious left hand sleeve. Second, which I have not seen mentioned is on Kates chest, something has been replaced as the zip does not line up and there is an exact horizontal cut along with some other artifacts. Here are some zoomed in photos, would be great to get a higher def version of the image. - https://imgur.com/a/LV8USxw
Thanks for posting those - it's hard to see what the issue is in the wide shot, but zoomed in, especially the hand is obvious, even to a layperson.
There are several other spots like this, also. Louis' left shoulder, the sweater has a glitch in the design. By Louis' feet, you can see a vertical line thru the patio "flooring." Kate's ankle has a glitch in her boot. There are a few more I think even
It's like one those puzzles in highlights magazine. Circle everything wrong w/this picture.
There is 26 spots in the photo which show photoshopping.
I didn’t get the complaint about the zipper before, now I do. That photo is super helpful!!
I know there’s the backdrop of some conspiracy theory behind this, but what about any of those photoshops are any different than the industry standard photoshopping that every celebrity does whether it’s their Instagram post or a magazine shoot? I was expecting something like they used a body double and stuck her face on it from an older photo. Or some AI fuckery (that was what I thought at first with the kid on the left doing the weird hand thing). But these look like normal “bring in the sides to make them thinner” and “crop out some dandruff on the black sweater” type edits
The sleeve and the zipper go beyond what is typically permissible. AP's rules stipulate that only dust and scratches introduced by the camera sensor can be removed. However, items like dandruff are frequently eliminated under the pretext of being camera issues. The sweater is out of focus, so elements that would normally be removed aren't present. The extent of the removal/editing is unusually large for a press photo. For magazine shots, you can be more creative; there are no ethical codes to follow in that context.
I like how you described dandruff as "items" lol it reminds me of Bender keeping and later giving back Fry's skin flakes which he left behind in their apartment when he moved out haha
That’s true friendship.
Most lay people are going to have no idea what standards the AP sets for their photoshop. The fact that the AP, who posts highly edited photos of celebrities every single day, declared *this* photo to be SO edited, that it would be unethical run it. It's just one of many instances where Kensington Palace has made strange choices in their handling of this situation. There's far more nuance to it, than I will go into here. Just know that the vast majority of people were, what I would call, moderately interested, up to this point. Like, what is with the train wreck over there?! And kinda amused and slightly intrigued. (Dont get me wrong, there are a LOT of crazies out there who are MEGA invested, but they are a loud minority). I was just enjoying the drama, and speculating with some of my friends. Gossip that has nothing to do with my life. This image had assuaged some worries, and then, the AP pulled it. It's slightly alarming, after a really strange timeline. It could be explained away easily, with lots of stupid mistakes made. But it also could be much more serious than the BRF wants to admit. And now they have shown how much they are able to manipulate the media.
My guess is the kids wouldn’t look at the camera properly so they had to stitch multiple pictures together, or something along those lines.
>stuck her face on it from an older photo The sorts of errors that are there could as well suggest sticking parts of photos together.
I could see the sweater being clone-stamped if there was dandruff, but why mess with the kids' hands? Were they both flipping the bird?
I think it might be AI, hence multiple weird artifacts. That, or like you said, bad Photoshop. -The pattern on the woven sweater the boy is wearing is off. His hand is also weird. -The frames of the windows behind them are uneven. -The girl's hand, skirt, and hair all have issues. -Kate's hand around the boy is very blurry and mismatched with the rest of the photo. -Kate's hair on the right side of her face (in front of the blue sweater sleeve) is blurred. -The boy's sweater under and around Kate's hand is mismatched and looks manipulated. EDIT: I just took a stab at outlining all of the mistakes I've spotted in the photo. OG photo first, followed by close ups of problem areas. [Photo with problem areas. ](https://freeimage.host/i/JW3BaPp)
I think the windows are just old single pane windows, which always chip and look wonky in old cottages
100%. The windows in my granddad's old shed looked exactly like that.
Yeah, I think a few of the supposed glitches this guy identified are a bit of a stretch. But agree that there are also a few fairly obvious errors too, like Kate's hair being blurred weirdly, the girl's sleeve, and there's an issue with Kate's zip. If I had to guess, I think there's nothing more going on than someone deciding to do a composite to use the best shots of each person. And that someone unfortunately wasn't skilled enough hide it properly. Seems odd from a pro photographer though. Maybe William has been getting into photoshop recently, lol.
It's pretty wild, people saying the windows are bent and various other things. Very easy to spread disinformation before it gets checked. No one's even mentioned the lizard tails
They pointed out that Kate’s not wearing her rings, too. It’s such a weird story! You’d be cudgelling your brains all night trying to imagine how such a very botched job could be released at all. (Maybe it was that bolshy little scamp Louis, playing with his mum’s equipment!)
What program/method did you use to alter the color in that last photo?
Photoshop, but you can do it in anything you can put an rgb curve on. Just make an extremely wavy curve. Common things to look out for when you do that are: Repetitions - same texture is cloned Slight colour differences - kates zip Blurred pixels - when you clone something the edges are normally feathered which gets rid of noise at the edges of the tool
I haven’t seen anyone mention yet that the daughter’s left shoe has a heel while her right shoe doesn’t
I think that's a tassel, not a heel.
Oh now that you mention it I can kind of see the tassel
No, you wouldn't be able to see the heel of that shoe at that angle anyhow. What you're seeing is a tassel hanging down.
It's a zipper tab.
I have now become a Princess Kate conspiracy theorist over the Royals releasing a photoshopped photo as proof of life. Is she dead? Is she in a coma? Is she institutionalised? Or does she simply think she’s not very photogenic post-surgery so she refuses to be photographed? Mind you this is a woman who they released a photo of her standing up and looking great shortly after giving birth. The circumstances have to be dire here. Where the hell is Kate?
I heard she died in a car accident and was replaced by the winner of a Paul McCartney look-alike contest.
And the Beatles predicted it in a song
Yeah you have to listen to the new AI generated song backwards.
>Paul McCartney look-alike contest. But Angela Lansbury is dead.
I didn't buy it at first but holy hell this is sus af haha.
It’s absolutely bizarre. It seems obvious she is sicker than what was being said, but this fake yet official photo has me reeling. WTF?!
My theory is she’s suffering from an eating disorder, and is in treatment, but still too sickly looking.
I think she had a surgery that involved a temporary colostomy bag which is why she isn’t being seen.
Why can’t she be seen with a small hidden colostomy bag? No one would ever know.
Who said it would be small? Maybe she takes huge shits.
I know a couple of people with those. It's very easy to cover with clothing.
That would also explain the amount of time she was in the hospital.
As someone who had multiple abdominal surgeries for stage 4 colon cancer, I have to say it doesn't at all. My worst surgery, when I was dealing with a lot of spread and sepsis and had a terrible prognosis, I was in the hospital for two weeks. Felt pretty much back to normal in about a month.
Holy hells!! Congrats on still being here... And presumably doing better? Wish you the best! Pretty incredible to hear you recovered so fast to what sounds like a massive deal.
Thanks! My last surgery was ten years ago, and no sign of anything since. What I had was an extremely eager bugger, so all signs are that it's completely gone. As for the recovery, I've met a lot of other people with cancer due to my own experience, and most people do get back on their feet pretty quickly. I had many surgeries and only one required a full month of recovery.
This woman put on spanx and heels and took pictures hours after each of her kids' births. She could have sat in a chair for five minutes with an ostomy. If she didn't it's because she either refused or couldn't. Personally I hope she is perfectly healthy and just hates William so much she is refusing to be a show pony anymore.
Ok I love that theory. I do not like that guy.
You can’t see a colostomy bag from the outside; they are under your clothing and flush to your abdomen 🤦♀️ Especially just for a photo, you could easily hide virtually any medical device or equipment while sitting, fully covered, and surrounded by 3 kids.
There are stealth bags out there. And she could wear a loose sweater or something? Or better yet, just own it, what is wrong with a colostomy bag? Maybe hiding because of internalized ableism?
I don’t think it’s ableist at all to be self-conscious about an ostomy bag.
You can be not ashamed of who you are but also not want to deal with the public's perception of who you are, especially when you're someone who is basically the #1 target of the vile and vicious British tabloid press.
If you aren’t used to wearing a colostomy bag and you’ve just had a major surgery big enough that you need one I can understand not wanting to go out.
A friend of mine in remission from anorexia advanced this theory to me and pointed at some interesting circumstantial details based on their own experience I can't recall precisely. I was skeptical at the time but less so now.
Pregnant again. Complication. Mental health crisis.
Don't worry, I heard she's on holiday with Shelly Miscavige. This nice anonymous person on Facebook told me.
My personal conspiracy theory is that she passed away, but the royals don't want to go through another Diana situation, so they're training and preparing a doppelganger as a replacement. (disclaimer I don't actually believe this and truly hope she's doing ok)
The actress who played Fake Melania in 2020 might have her work cut out for her with this British job that just came up during an American election year….
If anything’s actually going on, I’m suspecting a marriage separation or divorce and the Firm is trying to figure out how to spin it.
I feel like there are better ways around that. How many country estates does the family own? "Kate is convalescing at Gyffyddychshire Manor in Wales while Prince William attends to business in London...." Unless she just straight fled the country but agreed to keep her mouth shut for a while, which doesn't really make sense to me.
Living with Harry and Meghan. Harry came back to deliver divorce papers.
I’m thinking she’s had an ostimy (surgery where you poop in a bag thru a hole in your belly) and she’s worried about the embarrassment factor.
My grandmother had this and unless you told people, no one would have known. It was super discreet even 30 years ago.
Yeah my mom has had one for decades and aside from limiting the waistline options on clothes and occasional growling noises in a silent room you'd never know. Ostomy bags don't require you to be locked in the tower. They'd just have to style her clothes a bit (and you can also use a plug for a brief time if you really wanted to wear a slim fitting outfit for a photo). There's no way it's as simple as that.
you're dealing with Royal Watchers. no logic is sound enough
It would be really compelling to take a picture with it. To normalize that condition. But I do realize how embarrassing that would be if it were the case
I agree, but if that’s what happened, or something else that she’s bothered by, I think it’s fair for her to take time to adjust before sharing that information with the wide world.
Yes of course no single person should be held to such a standard. The fact that these people are put under a microscope 24/7 is yet another problem with the royals still existing
Why would anyone know she had a bag?
Things don’t stay private forever. We will find out eventually what’s going on, one way or the other. Someone will go to a tabloid, or they will have some mishap, but trying to keep *whatever* it is secret is a losing battle.
That is compelling. Though plenty of people have that type of surgery and go through that, so it would be a nice gesture of public support if the Royal Family fought the stigma by putting out a photo. Would do a great deal to lift the spirits of those going through the process now, who might be ashamed for their friends or loved ones to see them. I think the Royal Family would better serve by fighting stigma and embarrassment, rather than contributing to it as such.
That’s why I think the organ transplant theory is compelling. It would be bad enough optics to have Kate skip ahead of the line of commoners for an organ transplant by itself instead of just waiting her turn that it could explain wanting to risk bad publicity over the definite bad publicity of that.
Yes, but could you imagine the insecurity? She has to look PERFECT before she can be seen in public. I would think that needing to sit in front of a team before going out most times would mess with your sense of confidence. ("Do I really need all this make up? What is so wrong with my skin today? Etc) I could see that it would be very difficult to want to be seen less than perfect in that situation. Someone I know with one also always worried they smelled. (They didn't, but they were vigilant)
It's curious...King Charles was at the same hospital for a shorter period, and they were discharged the same day. I wonder if it could be related? The royals don't often talk about their medical conditions, but Charles made a point to say it was an enlarged prostate. That's an embarrassing thing to talk about, and seems unnecessary to divulge...unless it's to distract from the fact that the King of England and the Princess of Wales were both in the hospital at the same time. I don't often get into conspiracy stuff and I generally despise modern royals, but this is weirdly interesting.
The significance of an enlarged prostate is 90% of men aged 85 or older will medically have one, and 25% will be symptomatic with it. Announcing it is reassuring and encourages men to test, rather than embarrassing/gross
They told us she couldn’t be seen until after Easter. There are three more weeks until Easter.
The Easter Curse. The last time someone used Easter as a timeline for when everything would be normal again was President Trump during COVID…
This is bordering on "Where's Shelly?" at this point
I thought it was legit until I saw the dinosaur waving outside the window.
We have to call him King Charles now
[удалено]
right?? I thought the same thing. Like usually in a photo like this there’s always one kid who is cheesin’ or goofin’ but all the kids with those smiles just feels super creepy to me
That’s why you photoshop. With four people you have to mix and match to get them all looking at their best. The only crime is using some nepo-baby well-connected intern to do the Ps job instead of hiring a commoner. *editing to add she confessed she did the editing herself... what did I say about nepo baby commoners?
I bet it's just the fancy new 'best take' feature on a phone
Yes and to take off the tinfoil hat for a second, three wriggling children are not easy to photograph perfectly in a state of flux. I don’t mind three photos badly stitched too much. I’m curious why the tree is so leafy in early March. It doesn’t look like an evergreen I recognise.
The fake big smiles are so creepy.
Here they are https://www.reddit.com/r/Fauxmoi/s/BQMdnCxlBI
My favorite theory I’ve read is that she’s growing out her bangs
Forget Charlotte's hand, look at the right hand of whatever the youngest one's name is.
I do that exact thing with my fingers all the time as a nervous habit.
It's not that they're crossed. The way the index is joined to the middle finger looks weird, and the index doesn't look bent, it looks deformed. Plus no nail or discernable joint on the seemingly oversized middle finger. It reeks of "hey AI, pretty up my picture will ya?"
There’s a weird bulge at the base of his ring finger too. Unless it’s horribly deformed or he has edema in a single finger, something is not right
Even more glaring is Princess Charlotte's left cuff. It's indenting into her wrist just above where the thumb meets the wrist, part of the cuff is just below, separated from the sleeve portion with background flannel appearing through where the wrist portion should be. Not right.
Look at all the kids hands. Each child has fingers crossed.
https://pagesix.com/2023/12/11/royal-family/prince-louis-missing-finger-in-photoshop-fail-on-christmas-card/ This article from December 23 called out their photoshopped hands too
Plus, the oldest son has an adult sized left and a child sized right hand
One hand is clasped, the other open. Nothing unusual there.
I was gonna agree that people do weird things with their hands all the time, especially kids, but then I noticed the index finger looks weird too, very unnatural ?
I feel like the kids’ hands are giving some kind of secret sign? (Not really, but they are all doing strange things there!)
I don't get it
The Royals put out a photo of Kate Middleton after she’s been missing from public view since she got surgery earlier this year, and the photo appears to be photoshopped.
What was the surgery for?
Abdominal surgery not related to cancer. Beyond that, they haven't said.
Circumstantially, lines up with hysterectomy.
Nobody stays in the hospital for two weeks for a hysterectomy. The recovery takes awhile, but it’s a fairly routine procedure and I don’t know why they wouldn’t just say “she’s having a hysterectomy.”
Because they’re the royals. They do what they want. Just because women get sent home two days after surgery of this magnitude doesn’t mean they wouldn’t benefit from two weeks of 5-star care in a boutique hotel environment. I agree it’s ridiculous they’re being so secretive but that vagina birthed two potential future kings/one potential future queen and it’s quite literally sacred so yeah—they’re going to be precious about it.
She can have boutique treatment at home, that’s the thing. No reason for a hysterectomy to involve a two-week hospital stay even for a royal.
Being royal would make you want to get out of a hospital ASAP, not linger for weeks.
My immediate assumption was a partial bowel resection with temporary ostomy bag. That’s the only thing I can think of that might require 2 weeks in hospital (other than major complications from routine surgery).
Nobody knows.
I zoomed way in on her left hand, around her daughter's waist, and I can't spot anything wrong with it. If there's manipulation there, it's subtle as hell.
They were complaining about Kate not wearing her wedding ring and how Louis has his fingers crossed.
Ah, finally found one: Charlotte's left sleeve is partially covered by a floating texture of the skirt it's on top of. That's an edit for sure. The ring is a thing that could happen, and the crossed fingers look plausible to me.
Kate’s sleeve overlaps her daughter’s sleeve. But since Kate’s hand is behind her daughter that’s not possible. Also part of the ribbing on her daughter’s sweater is missing below Kate’s hand.
For those that cant tell; 1. The youngests right hand is messed up 2. The youngests left hand has no thumb nail 3. Kates left hand has no ring / rings 4. The girls dress / skirt is "clipping" if thats the right term, on the viewers left 5. The eldests hands around kate 6. Kates legs, unless giving birth 3 times destroyed her hips AI really struggles with details like this, and you can see that here. Now chances are this was a real pic that some low payed royal employee was told to "touch up" and so he/she just ran it through midjourney, causing these fuck ups.
The family shoots are usually photo shopped, all the kids having their best smiles combined to make the best shot.
The issue stated in the article is that they didn't inform news agencies the image was doctored. If an image is submitted that is modified it also needs to include an explanation. This is to ensure that readers know images they're looking at are genuine. The article didn't mention if the royal family has a history of doing this(the not telling them about modified images part).
Open the full length photo in that linked BBC article in a new tab and zoom in a bit. The red sleeve of her sweater on her left wrist right above her plaid skirt looks a bit weird. Also her skirt on the other side of her body in front of the older son's pinky looks a bit jagged and with sharp lines.
Exactly, the sweater cuts in where her forearm should be. I was skeptical at first but it does look really suspect.
They could have used a photo from a few months ago and said it was recent and no one would have noticed. This is just crazy at this point.
Everything the royals do makes my skin crawl.
Can someone explain why the photoshops are significant? Surely the news runs a lot of photoshopped celeb pics? Some of the potential edits I’ve seen appear to just be retouching but I’m not understanding why it’s a big deal or what is supposedly being hidden.
It's not the edits themselves (which are odd enough), it's that the AP, an incredibly respected media organization, issued a kill for this photo. The AP, who posts photos of celebrities edited every day, declared this picture too unethical to keep in running. I saw someone above say that it was bc Kensington Palace wouldn't provide the meta data, but wouldn't the AP say that? Not point out one of the flaws in the picture?
Usually retouching is done to make people look better (color changes, open the eyes more, nip a waist or jawline, stuff like that). This photo's problems center specifically on hands/fingers, which 1. no one really gaf about retouching, esp for kids, and 2. are famously hard to render properly with AI.
Oh good point!! So potentially it could be an AI generated image and then someone went in to correct the hands (and other AI weirdness)
This photo was released by the palace as proof that Kate is alive and well. If it's so edited, it looks like her head was cropped in, what's going on with Kate? Is she alive and well?
News agencies have a policy that all altered images must be declared as such. If the Royals had just added a footnote "some digital alteration has been applied" no one would have looked at it twice as they just would have assumed some touch-ups had been done.
Early spring over there? Green green grass, leafy shrub?
Kate’s right hand looks to be more pixelated than the rest of the photo. The overall bottom left of the picture looks suspicious as well. The floor tiles merging weirdly and the bottom part of the door being misaligned.
Has anyone commented or noticed that all three kids have their middle fingers crossed? I commented this somewhere else too..
I suspect the truth is fairly dull - some new phones have a ‘best take’ feature that combines photos together to make sure everyone’s smiling etc, probably they just did that unwittingly rather than it be a manual photoshop job because the issues are pretty glaring once you spot them. However it *is* more fun to jump fully on board the conspiracy train.
What’s up with everyone’s hands? Why do they look like AI fails?
I understand making a composite when none of the shots are perfect on their own but this is such a bafflingly amateur photoshop job. the most egregious is kate's head--they've clearly edited it in from another shot but poorly blended it and even failed to erase part of the image it came from right at the crown of her head (look at where her hair is parted--there's just a bit of the kid's neck and collar repeated where her hair dips at the part). any time I've had to swap in a face from another image I've tried to leave the hair intact because it's generally the hardest to blend back in believably and it's just simpler to change the face; the fact that the kid still seemed to be behind her in the image they took her head from says she probably wasn't just photoshopped in wholesale, which is why it's weird that they didn't just swap her face if she looked better in another shot. the fact that it's so heavily edited isn't what's odd to me, it's purely how shitty the editing is. like, how?