The recent Mother's Day photo of the Princess of Wales and her three children contained a glaring error which sparked claims that the photo had been manipulated.
Social media users claimed there was an “inconsistency” with Princess Charlotte’s hand, as part of her wrist was missing.
Others commented that the Princess of Wales was not wearing her wedding ring which appeared unusual, and a tree in the background strangely had leaves in mid-March.
The picture, released by Kensington Palace with a Mother’s Day message, was recalled by picture agencies Getty, AP, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
Princess Charlotte's hand was a clue the image was 'altered', fans claim
Kensington Royal / X
AP said: “At closer inspection, it appears that the source has manipulated the image.”
The agencies have a policy of not distributing photographs that have been overly edited.
This is thought to be the first time a picture issued by the Royal Family has been recalled in this way.
Royal commentator Katie Nicholl told GB News: “Had you not had days of speculation on where the Princess of Wales was, she hasn’t been seen in public for 76 days, the internet just almost ran away with itself, things just got out of control, and then she was papped, and some people don’t even think it was her that was papped, but papped being driven by her mother in a car which was the first time she had been seen since Christmas.
"The whole point was this photograph was intended to quash all of those conspiracy rumours, to make us all feel OK, she’s fine, she’s clearly still in recovery and that she’s fine, but now all the speculation is to how much of it has been digitally manipulated.
Kensington Palace issued this photograph on Mother's Day
Kensington Royal / X
"So yes, digital manipulation, airbrushing, it may go back all of those years, but I think it’s just the significance of it happening now and people being quite quick to point out discrepancies, not just with Charlotte’s wrist and her sleeve it disappears, but the fact the tree in the background is fully green and there’s a discrepancy over Louis' finger, so I think the best thing is for the Palace to just come out and clarify what’s happened.
"They can do that this morning to just appease everybody, we can then go on and focus on the Commonwealth Day Service which is happening later on this afternoon."
Dr Hany Farid, a professor of computer sciences, said the issue with Princess Charlotte’s sleeve looked like a “bad Photoshop job”.
He added: “I clearly see what is being referenced here, with respect to her sleeve. It looks like a bad Photoshop job. I know we talk a lot about AI lately but it is still possible to use traditional photo-editing tools. What you would be worried about here is if Kate wasn’t in this photo and had been digitally inserted. This would be a dramatic manipulation.”
Princess Kate last joined the Royal Family on an outing last year at Christmas
PADr Farid said the manipulation could have been done by the camera itself, rather than the picture being edited.
He continued to tell The Telegraph: “What modern cameras can do is take a series of photos in rapid succession and create a composite to get the best expressions for a more perfect picture.
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Kensington Palace confirmed that Kate is 'doing well' in her recovery Getty“When it does this it can sometimes make mistakes.
“As such, there is clearly evidence of editing but it is unclear if this was human-edited or camera-edited.
“The fact that it is on the left arm, makes it hard to think there is something nefarious.
“I think more likely than not it was an unintentional camera-induced artefact which is genuinely benign.”
Kensington Palace has declined to comment.