Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have broken their silence on the Princess of Wales’ photo editing furor to deny that sources inside their camp made comments about how the Duchess of Sussex would have handled a similar situation.
Amid increasing speculation surrounding the Mother’s Day image of Kate and her children, which was released to the world by Kensington Palace on Sunday, a spokesperson for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s Archewell Foundation spoke out to deny that any official representative for the couple had made comments about the controversy to Page Six.
Speaking to Newsweek, the spokesperson addressed quotes published by the outlet, which stated that a source ‘close to Prince William, Harry and his wife’, had not come ‘from us’.
The source in question stated to Page Six that the editing error ‘isn’t a mistake that Meghan would ever make’, noting that ‘she has a keen eye and freakish attention to detail’.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle (seen in February) have broken their silence on the Princess of Wales ‘ photo editing furor
The now notorious photoshopped Mother’s Day image of the Princess of Wales and her children – the first public image of her released since her surgery
However, Archewell’s official spokesperson has now insisted to Newsweek that the information ‘did not come from us’, stating simply: ‘With respect to Page Six, that did not come from us.’
The statement marks the first time that Harry, 39, and his wife have officially addressed the photo editing controversy in any official capacity.
In addition to the claims made about Meghan ‘never making the [same] mistake’, Page Six also published quotes from an insider who stated that the Sussexes ‘would have been annihilated’ had they released a similarly-edited image.
‘If Harry and Meghan had ever encountered the same issue they would have been annihilated,’ the source quotes read.
‘The same rules do not apply to both couples.
‘This isn’t a mistake that Meghan would ever make … she has a keen eye and freakish attention to detail.’
The outlet did not state that the quotes had come from inside Archewell however – and Newsweek noted that the comments could have been made by an acquaintance of the Sussexes who is not officially connected to the Foundation.
Meghan and Harry’s response to those claims has come after an explosion of conspiracy theories, after six of the world’s top picture agencies including the Press Association, sensationally pulled the photo from their wires and libraries amid concern that the ‘source has manipulated the image’.
The Princess of Wales was seen for the first time since the photo’s release when she was pictured in the back of a car leaving Windsor Castle with Prince William on Monday
DailyMail.com identified 16 separate edits made to the image, including issues with the princess’s jeans zipper and with Princess Charlotte’s hand and skirt
The Princess of Wales stated on Instagram that she had been responsible for editing the image, while issuing an apology for ‘any confusion the… photograph caused’
Princess Kate publicly took the blame for the family photograph released by Kensington Palace as she issued an apology for the ‘confusion’ in a statement posted on the Wales’ official Instagram account.
‘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,’ she wrote.
‘I hope everyone celebrating had a very happy Mother’s Day,’ Kate then concluded, before signing off the statement ‘C’ for Catherine.
The photo of the mother-of-three beaming with Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis was the first official picture released of the princess since she underwent ‘planned abdominal surgery’ on January 16.
Despite calls for the original to be published, Kensington Palace said it would not be reissuing the unedited photograph of Kate and her children.
In the wake of the public speculation surrounding the image, royal insiders have claimed that the Princess of Wales is eager to move on from the row – and is struggling to deal with the aftermath.
Kate was seen for the first time since the image was released on Monday, when she was pictured leaving Windsor Castle with her husband, Prince William.
It is understood that the Princess of Wales was traveling to a ‘private appointment’ – while Prince William was due to travel to London for two public engagements.
The mother-of-three was not expected to be seen in public until after Easter following abdominal surgery and two weeks in a private London hospital in January. Her surprise appearance came as wild online conspiracy theories swirled around the princess and her health.
Kensington Palace has come under enormous pressure to release the un-edited image – which experts have said was changed using Photoshop and related AI tools.
The world’s major photo agencies later ‘killed’ the picture after noticing signs of digital editing, including a missing part of Princess Charlotte’s sleeve and the misaligned edge of her wrist and skirt, and the positioning of Kate’s zip.