Princess Kate conspiracy theories

[pixy0stix]

There's a lot of theories about Kate, her surgery, etc. I personally didn't think any of them credible until an official picture was released today, and multiple news agencies are.pulling it back saying it was AI generated. WTF.

apnews.com/article/kate-princess-photo-surgery-ca91acf667c87c6c70a7838347d6d4fb

First photo of Princess of Wales since surgery is retracted because image appears manipulated

[Poppy]

The article doesn't say anything about AI, just that inconsistencies with Charlotte's hand led them to believe the image was manipulated. Any photoshopping could be considered "manipulated", right?

The photo does seem a little too good to be true, but in my completely amateur opinion, it seems more likely that multiple shots were stitched together to get the best frame for each person.

[BicycleBride]

I agree about several shots being stitched together. And the palace has said many times in the past that Kate enjoys photography so she may very well have edited the photo herself. If she’s still not feeling great following her surgery then she may not have been at the top of her editing game. I think the surgery was a lot more serious than the palace wants to let on and she probably spent a significant amount of time and energy preparing for this photo so she didn’t look sick but wanted to edit it herself because she enjoys doing that and just wasn’t up to her best work. Maybe there is something nefarious going on and it is weird that the AP would issue a retraction over a bit of poorly done photoshopping unless they have more information they aren’t ready to provide. But I do think the above explanation aligns best with the current facts.

[pixy0stix]

Photoshop manipulation could also be AI.

Frankly, the entire photo looks generated, so I added my bias to the post. Kate isn't wearing her wedding ring in the photo. This isn't the first time a recent photo has messed up hands - stylecaster.com/lists/prince-louis-missing-finger/

So... I won't be surprised if AI gets talked about in later articles.

[mccallister84]

Mar 10, 2024 18:41:52 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

Photoshop manipulation could also be AI.

Frankly, the entire photo looks generated, so I added my bias to the post. Kate isn't wearing her wedding ring in the photo. This isn't the first time a recent photo has messed up hands - stylecaster.com/lists/prince-louis-missing-finger/

So... I won't be surprised if AI gets talked about in later articles.

Does anyone know if the AP also pulled this photo?

[W.T.Faulkner]

As usual, the BRF is just making it weirder. lol

[imimahoney]

If you believe the TT and twitter FBI, there are over 20 errors in the photo. Everything from weird hands, shadows, and leg size.

It is definitely fueling the "where's Kate" drama online.

[imimahoney]

Mar 10, 2024 18:43:29 GMT -5 mccallister84 said:

Mar 10, 2024 18:41:52 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

Photoshop manipulation could also be AI.

Frankly, the entire photo looks generated, so I added my bias to the post. Kate isn't wearing her wedding ring in the photo. This isn't the first time a recent photo has messed up hands - stylecaster.com/lists/prince-louis-missing-finger/

So... I won't be surprised if AI gets talked about in later articles.

Does anyone know if the AP also pulled this photo?

Yes, they did.

[devonpow]

I don’t believe any of it, but I’m kind of enjoying the bizarre Kate conspiracies. It’s always surprising to me how bad the PR teams around the royals are.

[lillaguma]

Mar 10, 2024 18:41:52 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

Photoshop manipulation could also be AI.

Frankly, the entire photo looks generated, so I added my bias to the post. Kate isn't wearing her wedding ring in the photo. This isn't the first time a recent photo has messed up hands - stylecaster.com/lists/prince-louis-missing-finger/

So... I won't be surprised if AI gets talked about in later articles.

Ok but- I remember the Louis missing a finger thing and he isn't? From what I can see his thumb and his fingers are just spread wide.

Anyhow, with this most recent picture I agree with others that it's just a bad photoshop job. Probably they added a different frame of Charlotte in to this image.

People look way too deep in this kind of stuff. I agree that their PR can be ultra crummy, but in a case like this what can they really do? Even if they released a statement on what her medical problems was (and she deserves her privacy if she wants it) people wouldn't believe it and there would still be crazy conspiracy theories.

[erbear]

I thought I read somewhere that this was a photo taken a while ago (??) -- the speculation was about why she isn't wearing her rings.

I don't know. I assume she's not lying -- she had a major surgery (@@@
I assume a hysterectomy, based on absolutely nothing except it's a major surgery with that kind of recovery time, though why it was so emergent, I don't even have a guess) and that she is, indeed, recovering at home and not wanting to appear until she looks and feels better.

[claudiajean]

They requested the source picture/pictures (according to an article I read) before deciding to pull it. Had they been provided that and the photoshopping had been fairly innocent, they wouldn’t have pulled it. (For example, if they hadn’t gotten a picture of all of them looking the right way with eyes open so there were so swaps with a different photo, they would have left it up.)

KP didn’t reply to their requests. So while it doesn’t mean there is funny business, they certainly aren’t helping their own cause.

[wawa]

This is such a hilariously glaring misstep that I've decided that the BRF is all in for the conspiracy theories and released this entirely to stoke the flames. All press is good press?
This is my meta conspiracy.

[curbsideprophet]

Mar 11, 2024 4:47:53 GMT -5 wawa said:

This is such a hilariously glaring misstep that I've decided that the BRF is all in for the conspiracy theories and released this entirely to stoke the flames. All press is good press?
This is my meta conspiracy.

This makes the most sense. Otherwise I don’t understand how anyone thought this photo would make things better. There appear to be many things off from what I saw. Things that I don’t think would need to be edited if you were just doing minor touch ups.

[neverfstop]

Princess of Wales apologizes for ‘confusion’ over altered Mother’s Day photo

Giftlink wapo.st/3v7hO52

“Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing,” Catherine said in a post on Monday morning. “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,” she wrote in a message posted on Kensington Palace’s social media account. It was signed, “C,” for Catherine.

[sent]

I'm picturing the princess in a bed, on her phone, messing around with editing a photo.

Yeah, that didn't happen.

[Poppy]

www.nytimes.com/2024/03/11/world/europe/princess-kate-middleton-photo-edit-apology.html?unlocked_article_code=1.b00.FpmS.Ty0AkDI3wSpo&smid=url-share (gift link)
This shows some inconsistencies in greater detail.


Ok... So I know I came in saying this was nothing but can we talk about this apology?

"Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing. 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. C"

The wording is so unnecessarily vague on this! She didn't actually say she edited the image, just implied it. This statement makes things weirder to me.

[lessel]

For some reason I'm obsessed with this. More the bad photoshop skills than conspiracy theories. But some of the (obviously unsupported) theories online about her face being from a previous Vogue cover and the clothing all being from November last year all seem pretty darn plausible. Which just makes it such an unforced error on their part and deepens conspiracy theories for folks.

[carmenere]

Mar 10, 2024 18:58:34 GMT -5 lillaguma said:

Mar 10, 2024 18:41:52 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

Photoshop manipulation could also be AI.

Frankly, the entire photo looks generated, so I added my bias to the post. Kate isn't wearing her wedding ring in the photo. This isn't the first time a recent photo has messed up hands - stylecaster.com/lists/prince-louis-missing-finger/

So... I won't be surprised if AI gets talked about in later articles.

Ok but- I remember the Louis missing a finger thing and he isn't? From what I can see his thumb and his fingers are just spread wide.

Anyhow, with this most recent picture I agree with others that it's just a bad photoshop job. Probably they added a different frame of Charlotte in to this image.

People look way too deep in this kind of stuff. I agree that their PR can be ultra crummy, but in a case like this what can they really do? Even if they released a statement on what her medical problems was (and she deserves her privacy if she wants it) people wouldn't believe it and there would still be crazy conspiracy theories.

Yeah, after the flap about that picture I can see why the palace would have photoshopped a “normal” hand onto Charlotte rather than just letting it be whatever it originally was. But of course they shot themselves in the foot…the BRF isn’t exactly known for being tech savvy.

I miss the good old days when the conspiracy theories were about Kate wearing wiglets and Justin Trudeau having fake eyebrows.

[ESF]

I also was uninvested in this story, but now I cannot turn away.

After reading 8 zillion twitter posts on this, I am in the camp that this was a complete fake, compiled from AI or something, and not some light touch up to a photo they took a couple days ago. 

One of the conspiracy theories I saw pointed out some weird similarities between the clothing in this photo and the clothing some of them wore at an event in November. Good summary here.  E.g. Charlotte is wearing the same shirt in both, just with a sweater over it here. The older boy is wearing the same blue sweater in both, and the shirt underneath is white plaid in November, but blue plaid here.  Kate is wearing skinny jeans and the same boots, and her white turtleneck sweater is basically the same as the one in this photo, except darkened.  

I hope she and the kids are ok.  I was of the view that maybe she just wanted some privacy, but this photo and the bizarre explanation really have me thinking that there's something bad going on here.

[carmenere]

Mar 11, 2024 14:18:28 GMT -5 ESF said:

I hope she and the kids are ok.  I was of the view that maybe she just wanted some privacy, but this photo and the bizarre explanation really have me thinking that there's something bad going on here.

The kids are all in school, right? I feel like surely we would have heard something if they had stopped showing up.

[klee23]

I think the fact that the picture was taken earlier this year is the least "scandalous" part of the story. The royal family (especially W&K) often release pictures to mark special dates that were taken months before. They are often captioned like "In honor or HRH Prince George's 10th birthday the P/POW have released 3 photographs taken earlier this year at Adalaide Cottage" or some other BS. The difference this time is that didn't cone out and say it was an old pic. Likely because the PR team can't anticipate how the public will respond and it became much bigger than necessary

[mccallister84]

Mar 11, 2024 15:28:36 GMT -5 klee23 said:

I think the fact that the picture was taken earlier this year is the least "scandalous" part of the story. The royal family (especially W&K) often release pictures to mark special dates that were taken months before. They are often captioned like "In honor or HRH Prince George's 10th birthday the P/POW have released 3 photographs taken earlier this year at Adalaide Cottage" or some other BS. The difference this time is that didn't cone out and say it was an old pic. Likely because the PR team can't anticipate how the public will respond and it became much bigger than necessary

But they did caption it with 2024. So if it was taken in November I think that’s pretty ballsy.

[klee23]

Mar 11, 2024 15:30:27 GMT -5 mccallister84 said:

Mar 11, 2024 15:28:36 GMT -5 klee23 said:

I think the fact that the picture was taken earlier this year is the least "scandalous" part of the story. The royal family (especially W&K) often release pictures to mark special dates that were taken months before. They are often captioned like "In honor or HRH Prince George's 10th birthday the P/POW have released 3 photographs taken earlier this year at Adalaide Cottage" or some other BS. The difference this time is that didn't cone out and say it was an old pic. Likely because the PR team can't anticipate how the public will respond and it became much bigger than necessary

But they did caption it with 2024. So if it was taken in November I think that’s pretty ballsy.

Yes- sorry if that wasn't clear. They normally spell out it was old. This time they insinuated it wasn't because the PR team thought that was a good idea (thinking it would quell the chatter instead of amplify it). A decent PR person would be aware those pics are picked apart and wouldn't have tried it (like photoshopping Louis into the family pic with the queen and his cousins)

[mccallister84]

Mar 11, 2024 15:39:29 GMT -5 klee23 said:

Mar 11, 2024 15:30:27 GMT -5 mccallister84 said:

But they did caption it with 2024. So if it was taken in November I think that’s pretty ballsy.

Yes- sorry if that wasn't clear. They normally spell out it was old. This time they insinuated it wasn't because the PR team thought that was a good idea (thinking it would quell the chatter instead of amplify it). A decent PR person would be aware those pics are picked apart and wouldn't have tried it (like photoshopping Louis into the family pic with the queen and his cousins)

I guess to me there’s a difference between presenting the picture as recent and flat out lying and captioning it 2024.
Before all the hullabaloo I found it weird that they dated it 2024 but nothing more specific. I immediately thought it was from early January.

Like Kate’s statement implies she edited these photos but falls short of actually saying she did. Things can be misleading but still actually truthful.

At the end of the day, I just think their PR team is a nightmare. At this point nothing is going to satisfy people until she is seen at a public appearance.

[Deleted]

Mar 11, 2024 14:18:28 GMT -5 ESF said:

I also was uninvested in this story, but now I cannot turn away.

After reading 8 zillion twitter posts on this, I am in the camp that this was a complete fake, compiled from AI or something, and not some light touch up to a photo they took a couple days ago. 

One of the conspiracy theories I saw pointed out some weird similarities between the clothing in this photo and the clothing some of them wore at an event in November. Good summary here.  E.g. Charlotte is wearing the same shirt in both, just with a sweater over it here. The older boy is wearing the same blue sweater in both, and the shirt underneath is white plaid in November, but blue plaid here.  Kate is wearing skinny jeans and the same boots, and her white turtleneck sweater is basically the same as the one in this photo, except darkened.  

I hope she and the kids are ok.  I was of the view that maybe she just wanted some privacy, but this photo and the bizarre explanation really have me thinking that there's something bad going on here.

I mean, captioning “2024” isn’t the same as saying “this picture was taken this weekend.” I’ve been known to post a few-months-old photo of me and my kid on Mother’s Day. Add having just gone through major surgery and not being up for wearing normal clothes, and this all seems perfectly normal. Just because people assumed it was some kind of proof-of-life type situation doesn’t mean there was anything nefarious about it. And even if it wasn’t from the fall, they re-wear clothing all the time.

I’m still not buying that this is some kind of major coverup.

[imimahoney]

The new "paparazzi" photo of Kate and Will where you can't see Kate at all is just adding fuel to the fire.

They honestly need to come clean because the speculation will not stop any time soon.

[nothingcontroversial]

I am under the impression that William has had a lot of recent stress due to family emergencies.

He pulled out of his godfather's memorial service due to a personal matter.

TW


And then, a few hours later, there was a public announcement that the son-in-law of the Prince and Princess Michael of Kent died suddenly, reportedly due to a gunshot wound to the head.  (TW: I am under the impression due to the news in the media about this that the gunshot wound was self-inflicted.)

[lilafowler]

Mar 10, 2024 18:44:24 GMT -5 W.T.Faulkner said:

As usual, the BRF is just making it weirder. lol

[AJL]

I don't know much about the picture controversy, but I did go down the TikTok rabbit hole that this whole **waves hand around** sitch could also be related to something possibly coming to light about Rose Hanbury's children being William's and Kate getting Camilla-ed. Also, I'm always light years behind BRF gossip, so I'm also probably way off.