‘Mandatory kill’ on Kate Middleton photo sparks embarrassing royal crisis

A photo released to dispel fears about Kate Middleton has caused a huge incident after “mandatory kill” notices were hastily issued.

COMMENT

Thanks a bloody lot Kensington Palace. A Monday morning; a new shot of Kate the Princess of Wales, the first since she underwent abdominal surgery in January; a nice, largely typo-free story about the shot done and largely dusted.

And then came the strangest, oddest and most confusing twist since Queen Camilla suggested they film Strictly Come Dancing at Buckingham Palace (true story I’m afraid).

This new photo of Kate was killed.

On Monday morning, AEDT, the world’s four biggest photo agencies Associated Press (AP) Reuters, Agence France-Presse (AFP) and Getty Images issued “kill notice” orders for the image. According to AP, “At closer inspection it appears that the source has manipulated the image.”

What the actual hell is happening over at Kate and Prince William’s Kensington Palace office?

Getty Images issued a mandatory kill on the royal Mother’s Day image for ‘editorial reasons’. Picture: Handout/Prince of Wales/Kensington Palace via Getty Images

Nothing makes sense any more and if my editor didn’t expect me to file something I would be lying down in a dark room listening to soothing whale sounds and trying not to think about what a complete and total hash Team Wales are making of things.

Here’s the deal. On Sunday night, Australian time, the palace put out a new shiny image of Kate to mark Mother’s Day in the UK showing the Princess and her three children, which was taken in the last week by none other than William.

Social media then belched forth a stream of posts claiming that it had been generated by AI or had been pretty crudely Photoshopped and a dutiful royal writer sailed forth to bang out some insightful (preens) thoughts.

At the time of publishing the photo was still on the official Wales Instagram account. Picture: Instagram

And then, 13 hours after the Waleses’ official X, formerly Twitter, and Instagram accounts shared the image, AFP, Getty, Reuters and AP began yanking the picture over concerns, according to the Telegraph, that it had been “manipulated”.

A spokesman for AP told the paper: “The photo shows an inconsistency in the alignment of Princess Charlotte’s left hand.”

Princess Charlotte sleeve appeared to disappear. Picture: Getty

Kate Middleton’s hand looked strangely fuzzy. Picture: Getty

The door behind Prince Louis appears to be shapeshifting. Picture: Getty

I hate to have to use a word we all came to hate during the pandemic, but this is completely unprecedented for the royal family.

What I decisively say at this point is that Kensington Palace would appear to be losing it faster than Harry’s trousers in a Vegas hotel suite. (Well, circa 2012.) They have managed to bungle the events of 2024 to such an egregious degree they need to call in with serious haste consultants, a shaman and whoever runs Princess Anne’s diary.

First in January they managed to shock the world by announcing that Kate was undergoing mysterious abdominal surgery, something so serious that it would require two weeks in hospital and a convalescence longer than some round the world cruises.

Then, in late February, the various whispers on X and Insta transmogrified into the full blown Katespiracy. Fruit loopy, unhinged-edness took over much of social media making spurious claims about the princess’ whereabouts, her condition and whether or not she will be debuting an outrageously outré new bum later this year.

Rumours have been reaching fever pitch about where Kate is. Picture: Chris Jackson/Getty Images

The palace handled this doing exactly nothing, with a series of well-informed London royal journalists reporting that William, in guard-dog husband-mode, would not be capitulating to the Twitterati and TikTok’s increasingly hysterical demands.

This stern, staunch, somewhat hoary approach seemed out of step with growing public agitating, setting off no end of hand-wringing.

The following week, a seemingly lone paparazzo managed to get two snaps of Kate and her mother Carole Middleton driving near Windsor. The British press, somewhat sanctimoniously, decided not to run it claiming it was an invasion of her privacy words that over in Montecito caused Prince Harry the Duke of Sussex’s entire head to swivel 360 degrees.

Whether before or after this moral high horse was mounted, the palace was also reportedly leaning on Fleet Street not to run it.

Just another entry in the ever-expanding kerfuffle file.

Then in March came the British Ministry of Defence (MOD) announcing that Kate would be taking part in this year’s Trooping the Colour event in June, putting some very affordable tickets on sale. Within hours, the palace had stepped in, forcing the MOD to take the page down and for them to have to admit they had jumped the gun.

Kate Middleton’s big return to the public eye was announced and then retracted. Picture: Jonathan Brady – Pool / Getty Images

It seemed on Sunday like a resumption of normal programming. A new photo of Kate, showing her, if not exactly doing jumping jacks on a trampoline, then at least in one piece and well enough to adeptly apply eye liner and to manage the curling tongs.

But that relief was short-lived when the AFP et al stepped in and announced they had pulled the shot from their archives, even while the image is still appearing on William and Kate’s X and Instagram accounts.

AFP’s mandatory kill notice on the royal image. Picture: AFP handout

What the actual hell?

It’s perhaps worth noting that earlier this month William got a new private secretary in the form of Ian Patrick, taking over from Jean-Christophe Grey who had been in the job since 2021 and had charted the turbulent post-Megxit years.

The well-oiled, well-run, shipshape Wales outfit of yore has somehow run aground and in its place we have this new normal of near-daily flubs and f*ck ups. (There is a time and place for some judicious profanity and we have arrived.)

This would all be amusing if it wasn’t so damaging and so embarrassing.

Today, some of the world’s longest established and most trusted news sources have now come out and said that the image meant to allay fears and tamp down the hysteria is “manipulated”, thus pouring kerosene on the already burning Kate conflagration.

Things are only going to get worse and weirder and more unhinged before they get better, a situation for which the palace bears responsibility. In just over 12 hours they haven’t adroitly managed to contain and handle the Katespiracy but to make it infinitely more loopy and worse.

Things seem so out of control that a few hours from now I’ll probably be back here writing about how Kate is set to join Lauren Sanchez’s space mission or the Great British Bake Off has mistakenly announced that the Princess of Wales is joining the cast or Kensington Palace erroneously publishing her the full contents of her gratitude journal.

In the meantime, if anyone is looking for me, check that darkened room.

Daniela Elser is a writer, editor and a royal commentator with more than 15 years’ experience working with a number of Australia’s leading media titles.