Kate Middleton’s public apology for editing family photo is rare for a royal

In the middle of a public controversy, Kate, the Princess of Wales, did something that only a handful of royal family members have done before her: She apologized publicly.

Kate’s apology Monday for “any confusion” she created by editing a family photo is not only rare on its own, but rare in the history of Britain’s royal family, according to ABC News royal contributor Victoria Murphy.

“It’s rare to get a public apology from a member of the royal family, and certainly one that is delivered personally rather than via a spokesperson,” Murphy said. “The fact that an apology was issued here by Kate shows that the Palace have taken the outcry seriously and feel its important they hold their hands up and say, ‘Yes we did edit it, and we apologize for that confusion.”

Kate’s apology, issued in a statement shared on X, formerly Twitter, came after she and William released a photo Sunday to mark Mother’s Day in the United Kingdom.

The photo, showing a smiling Kate surrounded by her three children, Princes George and Louis and Princess Charlotte, was the first official photo of the princess released since she underwent abdominal surgery in January, after which she remained in the hospital for two weeks.

Just hours after the Waleses shared the family photo on X, giving photo credit to William, several global news agencies retracted the photo over concerns it was “manipulated.”

This undated photo issued on Sunday March 10, 2024, by Kensington Palace shows Kate, Princess of Wales with her children, Prince Louis, left, Prince George and Princess Charlotte, taken in Windsor, England, by Prince William earlier this week.

Prince Of Wales/AP

One of the agencies, The Associated Press, told ABC News in a statement Sunday it retracted the photo “because at closer inspection, it appears that the source had manipulated the image in a way that did not meet AP’s photo standards. The photo shows an inconsistency in the alignment of Princess Charlotte’s left hand.”

Kensington Palace initially declined to comment on the matter, but on Monday, Kate shared an apology on X.

“Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing,” Kate said. “I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused. I hope everyone celebrating had a very happy Mother’s Day.”

Kate, whose full name is Catherine, signed the message as “C,” indicating she wrote it herself, according to Murphy.

“The fact that this was signed C for Catherine reflects the fact this was a personal message directly from the princess and not just one on her behalf from Kensington Palace,” she said. “Most of the time the palace’s social media accounts do not contain personal messages from the royals themselves, so when one comes along, it is significant.”

Murphy noted that Kate’s apology was likely issued after discussions among William and Kate’s “small and close-knit team” at Kensington Palace.

“Kensington Palace was not commenting last night or early this morning after the photo agencies recalled the image, so it is clear that they wanted to spent time deciding on what the best response was,” Murphy said. “Often, statements are issued to the media via email or even nowadays on WhatsApp, but with this there was obviously a decision taken to issue the apology on the same social media platforms that the original photograph was issued.”

Murphy said that while Kate’s photo editing controversy has created a public “furor,” it is not on the scale of something with “constitutional significance” for which her apology would have required further approvals.

Catherine, Princess of Wales attends the Christmas Day service at St Mary Magdalene Church, Dec. 25, 2023, in Sandringham, Norfolk.

Mark Cuthbert/UK Press via Getty Images

The photo editing error gained the public’s attention mostly because it added to the speculation swirling online about Kate’s well-being given her absence from the public eye since late December.

In the past, royal apologies have come as a result of incidents “much more serious,” according to Murphy.

Examples include Prince Harry, Kate’s brother-in-law, apologizing in 2005 for dressing up in a Nazi uniform one Halloween, and Sarah Ferguson, Prince Andrew’s ex-wife, apologizing in 2012 for taking money from Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted sex offender who died in prison from an apparent suicide in 2020.

More recently, in 2019, the late Prince Philip, William and Harry’s grandfather, sent an apology letter to the victim of a car crash he was involved in, writing that he was “very contrite about the consequences.”

Murphy said she believes Kate’s apology was issued to help stop the scrutiny and not turn the mistake into more than what it is.

“From what I understand, this was a case of minor edits without thinking through the consequences for releasing the image as a news image,” Murphy said. “However, editing the image in any way was a particularly silly mistake because this is a time of all times when the palace should have known that people would be heavily scrutinizing it. People haven’t seen Kate for so long and there has been so much speculation on how she is doing throughout her absence from public life.”

Kensington Palace said Monday it would not be reissuing the original unedited photograph of Kate and her children.