Catherine, Princess of Wales, ‘thrown under bus,’ by William, Kensington Palace

A Royal watcher has said Prince William has behaved “ungentlemanly” letting his wife carry the can for the photo debacle.

Catherine, Princess of Wales, has been “thrown under a bus,” and made to take the blame for the Mother’s Day Photoshop fail by Kensington Palace and an “ungentlemanly” Prince William.

That’s the view of a royal expert who has also predicted a number of staff will leave the Wales’ household after the snapshot scandal.

The furore surrounding the edited picture, released on Sunday, continues to reverberate.

While the Royal Family has attempted to shrug it off as simply some amateur retouching by Kate Middleton, others have said it calls into question transparency in the institution and does nothing to quell concern about the princess’ wellbeing.

Catherine, Princess of Wales, has taken the blame for other’s mistakes, it’s been claimed. Picture: Justin Tallis – WPA Pool/Getty Images

On Monday, four of the world’s largest photo agencies removed a picture given to them on Sunday of the princess and her three children from their libraries.

The Associated Press said the reason for deleting the photo was because “at closer inspection it appears that the source has manipulated the image”.

On Tuesday, the Princess of Wales released an unprecedented statement apologising for not being open abut editing the image.

“Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing,” she said.

Kate has not been fully seen in public since Christmas Day. In January she went to hospital for a “planned,” but unexplained, abdominal operation.

Kensington Palace said she would recuperate and wouldn’t resume official royal duties until after Easter.

Since then she has only been seen in two paparazzi shots, both murky. One of those was on Monday morning in a car with William, Prince of Wales, hours after the picture editing revelation broke.

The now infamous image of Catherine, Princess of Wales, with her children. Picture: Prince of Wales/Kensington Palace/Handout/Getty Images

Several news agencies deleted it from their libraries.

Kate ‘thrown under a bus’

On a YouTube show discussing the photo shambles, Daily Mail royal reporter Richard Eden said the release of the image only occurred because the princess was under immense pressure from people saying “we want a photo, we want to know how she is, tell us how she is”.

Caving to demands, he said, a photo was taken by Prince William which was edited and then issued by the Royal machine – but it was Kate who had to issue a mea culpa.

“It’s not some personal thing, it’s issued by Kensington Palace communications people and then she has been thrown under a bus,” he said.

“It’s disgraceful. It’s very ungentlemanly of Prince William to put the onus on (Kate).

“For goodness sake, he’s the one who took the photograph.

“And the officials made it public. They gave it out, it’s their job. I think it’s absolutely disgraceful that they’ve said to her ‘you go an explain what you did’. No, it’s your job.

Take some responsibility.”

Eden also said the Waleses were surrounded by “yes men” when they needed “stronger officials”.

“It wouldn’t surprise me if heads do roll over this, if not now … then eventually.”

On Tuesday, a leading royal commentator said the princess was likely in a “fragile mental and physical state” following the Mother’s Day debacle.

Long-time royal reporter Penny Junor told British news channel GB News that the immense speculation surrounding Kate Middleton was in danger of becoming “bullying”.

“Obviously the palace never want to feel pressured or pushed into doing something,” said Ms Junor, who has written extensively on the royals since the early 1980s.

Prince William, Prince of Wales, has been accused of acting ‘very ungentlemanly’. Picture: Henry Nicholls/POOL/AFP

“I do think that it would be a good idea do a little video clip on Instagram or something in a day or two.

“But I do think we are in danger of bullying a lady who is trying to recover from a very serious operation.”

Ms Junor added it was likely Kate’s Mother’s Day was “ruined” by the revelations about the photo.

“She was photographed yesterday in the car with William (and) she didn’t look that happy. She must be under intense pressure now – whenever she’s going to be seen in public,” Ms Junor said.

“The pressure has doubled and redoubled and I think she’s in a fragile mental and physical state and we should lay off here.”