London [UK], March 11 : Over rising concerns about the Mother's Day picture being manipulated, Catherine, the Princess of Wales, has taken responsibility and apologized for the edited official photograph, CNN reported on Monday.
Kate apologized for "any confusion" the picture may have caused after her "experiment" with photo editing raised questions about Kensington Palace and made Kate's prolonged absence from the public spotlight more apparent.
The image, which was made public on Sunday in the UK in honour of Mother's Day, was Kate's first official portrait since her January abdominal surgery.
However, four significant photo agencies released "kill notices" hours after Kensington Palace released it, citing suspicions that image had been altered.
In a post on X, the Princess of Wales wrote, "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."
The palace did not elaborate on the specific elements of the photo that Catherine was trying to alter or if the image that was made public was a composite of many shots taken during the same session.
While it is normal practice to combine many images to produce a composite, photo agencies, that supply images to international news sites, have tight policies on edits and usually only permit very few adjustments to photos, according to CNN.
On Mother's Day, the Royal family releases a family portrait every year.
However, this year's photo was released amid mystery and confusion surrounding the prolonged absence of the Princess of Wales, after her January surgery. The picture, which Kensington Palace claimed was taken by William, Prince of Wales, was released on Sunday, answering some of those questions for a while.
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