The Princess of Wales knows the power of a carefully timed photo | Samantha Maiden

Kate learned a trick or two about the media from the late Queen Elizabeth II, writes Samantha Maiden.

As one of the most photographed women in the world, there was a defiant air to the Princess of Wales turning her face away from the cameras as she was leaving Windsor Castle this week.

As her eyes stared intently at the mesmerising red brick wall where the assembled snappers werenot stationed, she appeared to be sending a message.

The photo that launched 1000 media articles. Picture: Prince of Wales/Kensington Palace/Handout/Getty Images

Eschewing the subtlety of Queen Elizabeth II’s brooch diplomacy – she famously threw shade at President Trump with a selection of coded messages via the medium of her breast pins – the woman previously known as Kate Middleton seemed to be communicating that she was royally pissed off.

The message was one of noncompliance and disobedience, with the gathered photographers keen for proof of life after her all-too-perfect Mother’s Day photograph made international headlines for being doctored.

And who can blame her really? Not many people would be totally stoked at undergoing major surgery and then having photographers camped out in your front yard.

Let alone to be rumoured, according to a million deranged conspiracy theorists and internet sleuths, to be dead, recovering from a BBL or a face lift, having a hysterectomy, a fibroid removal, getting a secret divorce from her husband Prince William, cut and pasting her head from a Vogue Australia cover or having a bowel resection triggered by Crohn’s or ulcerative colitis.

As an aside, there’s no hysterectomy most doctors have ever heard of that requires two weeks in hospital and three months hidden from public view, so there’s something else going on here.

Speaking as someone who has had a six-hour operation for endometriosis 16 years ago with a side serve of bilateral ovarian tumours, I was sent home after one day in hospital and told to take about 10 days off work, so I think we can safely assume it’s not that either.

Perhaps there’s a clue in the recent appointment of a former diplomat as Prince William’s private secretary, as he returns to royal duties after his father’s cancer diagnosis.

Ian Patrick is a Crohn’s & Colitis UK Trustee who was first diagnosed with Crohn’s disease at 17 and talks of having “lived with the challenges ever since”.

Of course, it’s understandable that she wants to keep her private health issues private but once the Royal Family waded into the goop of releasing a doctored official photograph to prove that all was well, it raised even more questions.

The image was altered “at the source” according to photo agencies and metadata, with the ailing Princess putting her hand up to take the blame and reveal herself to be not too sick to get busy on Adobe Photoshop after 9pm.

In other words, Prince William took the photo and the previously bedridden Princess Catherine took the blame for tinkering with it.

The public meanwhile is supposed to be lulled into a sense of security by much of the British media coverage that it was not deeply, deeply weird that the billionaire royal is doctoring her husband’s family photographs late at night.

Or, that it is not deeply dishonest of the royal family to be releasing the images to the public and then refusing to explain whether the photograph is one image or a composite or indeed has her head grafted on.

When US paparazzi outlet TMZ took the first candid snap of her since the op, staring out stony-faced at school pick-up, the Palace applied the pressure on British media outlets not to publish it and most agreed.

What does this all tell us and should anyone care?

One of the things it tells us is that while Kate has been reported “missing” she may well have been attending school pick-up and British press had a gentlemen’s agreement not to photograph her.

The British Press Photographers’ Association has applauded the actions of the major agencies who had the courage to withdraw the Mother’s Day image by issuing a ‘kill notice’.

“Their suspicions that the photograph had been digitally manipulated are well-founded and it is important for the reputation of press photography that they have acted as swiftly and decisively as they have,’’ the organisation said.

The then-Duchess of Cambridge Catherine in another iconic photograph at the funeral of Prince Philip. Picture: Chris Jackson/WPA Pool/Getty Images

Catherine, Princess of Wales arrives at Westminster Abbey in central London ahead of the coronation King Charles III and Queen Camilla. Picture: Odd Andersen/AFP

“Whether the picture was manipulated to ‘look nice’ by someone who didn’t understand the importance of truth in images or whether there is something else behind their actions is not as important as getting the message out there that it is wrong.

“We would urge everyone involved to make the original images available for inspection so that we can assess what has been done, make sure that it doesn’t happen again and allow this story to be the last time that manipulated images are distributed to the media.”

The British press dutifully reports that the Princess of Wales is feeling “sad” and various opinion pieces have emerged suggesting more questions risks “bullying” the missing Princess.

Really?

The fact that the royal family’s expenses are covered by an annual taxpayer-funded payment known as the Sovereign Grant, which in the 2021-2022 financial year was set at 86.3 million pounds ($A167m) does not require her to make public her personal medical history.

It should however make the Palace think twice before releasing fake photos and then refusing to explain how and when they were doctored.

“Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing,” the 42-year-old Princess wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Shortly after issuing the statement, she hopped into the car with Prince William for a private appointment before dramatically turning her head from the cameras.

Suffice to say that the Princess of Wales has made her views known without saying anything at all.

Contrast her turned head in deep engagement with that mesmerising brick wall this week, with the famous image of her staring straight at the camera at Prince Phillip’s funeral in 2021, wearing a black Covid mask.

Or indeed the iconic image of the Princess of Wales before she entered Westminster Abbey for the King’s coronation, taken by AFP photographer Odd Andersen.

If you think those photographs were accidents – Princess Catherine looking over her shoulder directly into the lens of a favoured snapper – there is a Sydney Harbour Bridge we would like to sell you.

Originally published as The Princess of Wales knows the power of a carefully timed photo | Samantha Maiden