What Royals must do after pic scandal
Little pic. Big, big scandal. Palace experts weigh in on why the doctored image actually matters – and how Queen Elizabeth’s final months showed what Princess Catherine needs to do.
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“Never complain, never explain” has been the British royal family’s PR strategy since before PR strategies ever became a thing, but after the septimana horribilis (horrible week) of the past seven days, clearly a new mantra is needed.
And we have the perfect one.
Never complain and never explain, but never feign, ever again.
When Kensington Palace released a seemingly innocent photo of Princess Catherine and her children last Sunday to coincide with Mother’s Day in the UK, little did they know the pandemonium that would ensue.
When internet sleuths started detecting telltale signs of image manipulation in the shot (more than a dozen have been uncovered so far), prompting photo agencies to withdraw it from circulation, it turbocharged speculation about Princess Catherine’s health, given she had been out of the public eye since before her abdominal surgery in January.
On the Monday, the Princess took to social media to apologise for “any confusion” caused by her “experiment”. She was given credit for making the statement, and within days the hashtag #IStandWithCatherine was trending on social media.
But the palace’s refusal to release the original image only deepened suspicions that something was seriously wrong.
Royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams said the reaction to the “photoshop incident” had been “hysterical” but in future it would “be just seen as an embarrassing blip” on the part of the Prince and Princess of Wales.
“(Princess Catherine) will be under the microscope for a while but this will not permanently damage her reputation or the institution’s,” he said.
Ingrid Seward, the editor of Majesty magazine, said the airbrushing of royal family photos was done “all the time,” and “the only problem was this time it was done by Kate and no one expected it”.
“The incident has been badly handled by the Palace and the buck should stop with them,” Ms Seward said.
“They should have dealt with it earlier, rather than leave Kate to handle it.”
It’s expected Princess Catherine will continue to take and post images of family life – it’s long been one of her hallmarks – but any digital tweaking is expected to stop, with media outlets announcing they would be reviewing all handout photos for signs of manipulation in future.
The Princess’s swift apology was also interpreted as a sign of how the royal couple would bounce back from missteps in future.
“The fact that the Princess apologised the following day, means she has the forgiveness of people. People understand it was a silly mistake,” Ms Seward said.
With regards to how the royal couple will deal with sensitive information in future, it’s expected the “never explain” rule – which the royal family has adhered to rigidly over the past few years as Prince Harry and Meghan Markle made their many accusations – will still generally hold.
Mr Fitzwilliams said the British public remained respectful of royal boundaries.
“The fact that [Princess Catherine] hasn’t told the public exactly what her surgery for, is perfectly understandable; she is entitled to privacy," he said.
But others contended that a deeper issue has been stirred up here, with important lessons William and Catherine should heed.
“From a PR point of view, there is now a problem of trust and credibility,” Mr Fitzwilliam said. Shouldn’t we expect the royal family, and indeed all people in positions of authority, to be honest with us, or at least not to dissemble?
The issue has clearly struck a chord. Newsweek noted that a reporter in the White House press briefing room sought confirmation this week that the Biden administration did not doctor photos they released. (They do not, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stated.)
Among the thinkpieces, expert commentary and wickedly good memes that proliferated all week, it was the veteran British magazine editor Tina Brown who really cut to the heart of why this seemingly trivial photoshop fail actually mattered so much.
Speaking to CBS, Ms Brown said while Princess Catherine was entitled to privacy, the picture actually functioned as a “health update”.
“The picture is a health update saying, ‘Look at me, look at us, I’m perfectly fine.’ So, of course the world descends on that picture to dissect it,” she said.
Ms Brown said the late Queen Elizabeth managed to make public appearances in the last months of her life despite increasing and extreme frailty.
“So why they can’t simply have Kate on a sort of, 50-second Zoom, saying, ‘I’m here, I’m fine.’ Bam. That’s the end of it,” Ms Brown said.
Alternatively, the Princess could just “wave from a car window … and smile,” Ms Brown added.
“It’s puzzling that that doesn’t happen.”
Interestingly, Kate was snapped by a paparazzo in a car this week, sitting next to Prince William, but she was turned away, and most definitely not waving or smiling.
Ms Seward said the Princess “feels vulnerable right now, but she will come back to duty and all will be forgotten”.
“The fact she came out the next day and was seen in the back of the car with William was her decision. She wanted to say ‘sorry, I’m still here, this is no conspiracy, I’m still around and I will be back,’” she said.
Attention will now turn to Princess Catherine’s return to officially duties, which Kensington Palace had earlier indicated would happen sometime after Easter.
If that return gets pushed back further, the public will definitely want to know why.
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