Ever since she became part of the royal family, Kate Middleton has been a much loved person and a fascinating public figure.
She is an exceptional woman who seems to be carrying a lot of weight on her shoulders, especially now that she received the title Princess of Wales. Being a Princess, a mother, and a future Queen, or Queen Consort at least, she has her hands busy at all times, but she still manages to perform everything with excellence.
Among the rest, Kate Middleton is known to be passionate about photography.
What’s most, she even offered to take the first photos of baby Archie, Harry and Meghan’s first born son, but her offer was rejected by the Duchess of Sussex. Instead, Meghan wanted to hire a professional photographer.
“This was a very special gesture from the now-Princess of Wales to Meghan Markle when she had her first child, Archie,” royal expert Neil Sean said in a Youtube video, as reported by Express. He added that Kate offered to “take the personal picture of baby Archie” after other professional photographers had “commended” her portfolio.
“According to that good source, apparently, Meghan turned that opportunity down flat,” Sean continued. “And as ever, we have to say allegedly [but] we’re not quite sure why [Meghan turned Kate’s offer down].
“You didn’t need to hire a photographer, as Harry and Meghan did.”
These days, Kate makes headlines because of her “planned” abdominal surgery that took pace in mid-January. The public wonders what her actual health condition is because the Palace fails to provide any details, although the speculations regarding the Princess and her whereabouts keep raising with each passing day.
The photograph she posted on Mother’s Day, on which she is surrounded by her three children was “killed” shorty after published.
“Professional photographer here. Look closely at Princess Charlotte’s wrist. This is what happens when you composite layers in Photoshop. I’m not speculating on why the photo was edited like this, but it’s weird,” portrait photographer Martin Bamford wrote on X.
The Princess took “the blame” for manipulating the photo.
On her and William’s official X account, she 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. I hope everyone celebrating had a very happy Mother’s Day. C.”
Kensington Palace later confirmed it “would not be reissuing the original unedited photograph of Kate and her children.”
The Associated Press, Reuters, Getty Images, and Agence France-Presse all decided to issue “kill notices,” which are advisory notices to remove or not use a specific photo.
“It appears that the source has manipulated the image,” the Associated Press notification read.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Media Show, Phil Chetwynd, AFP’s global news director, said that Kensington Palace is no longer a trusted source.
“No, absolutely not. Like with anything, when you’re let down by a source the bar is raised … We sent out notes to all our teams at the moment to be absolutely super more vigilant about the content coming across our desk — even from what we would call trusted sources,” he said, as reported by Deadline.
He added that kill notices are usually reserved for sources such as North Korea.
“To kill something on the basis of manipulation [is rare. We do it] once a year maybe, I hope less. The previous kills we’ve had have been from the North Korean news agency or the Iranian news agency,” Chetwynd added.
Kate’s love for photography dates back when she was still very young. In fact, her paternal grandfather, Peter Middleton, was an excellent photographer.
“Her grandfather was a very good photographer,” Claudia Acott Williams, Collections Curator at Historic Royal Palaces, said, per Express. “When she was a child, he would show her his slides. It was him who taught her how to take photographs.”
In her book, Kate: The Future Queen, royal expert and author Katie Nicholl wrote: “Until now the Queen had met Kate only fleetingly at the wedding of Peter and Autumn Phillips, but she went out of her way to make her feel welcome, giving her permission to take pictures at Balmoral.”
“As a woman who has lived her entire life in the public eye, the Queen rarely lets her guard down, and very few apart from her family and closest friends get to see the real Elizabeth,” Nicholl added.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Princess of Wales launched the project Hold Still with the National Portrait Gallery, demonstrating the “power of photography” during a very challenging time—not only for the country but for the world.
“We’ve all seen some incredible images out there and heard some amazing stories — some desperately sad stories, but also some really uplifting ones as well,” Kate said during an appearance on the UK television show This Morning. “I really hope that through a project like this, we might be able to showcase some of those stories and to document and share a moment in time, I suppose, that we’re all experiencing.”
When Camilla appeared on the cover of UK magazine Country Life in 2022, she asked Kate to take the photo.
“She immediately replied, ‘Oh I’d quite like Catherine to do it.’ I spent the next three or four minutes desperately racking my brain trying to think of a professional photographer called Catherine,” Mark Hedges, editor of Country Life, said in a statement. “Then suddenly, I grasped what she meant — one of the most amazing things that could happen. I found it one of the easier things to nod my head at.”
“She did very good pictures and she does it sort of naturally. We had a lot of fun doing it. It was very relaxed and, of course, very kind of the [ Princess of Wales ]. She came with her camera and she’s an extremely good photographer,” she said, as per the Mirror.
Over the years, Kate has taken plenty of photos that attracted the attention of many, most of which of her children.
However, with the issue surrounding her last photograph, the one shared on Mother’s Day, Russell Myers, royal editor at the Daily Mirror, believes she would no longer share her photographs with the world.
“They put the picture out and I suppose they will have to have a review of this process. What I think is going to be the biggest shame of all, is Kate may never put a picture out again,” he said.
“And we’ve had years of her putting out pictures of the children on their birthday, Louis’ first day at school, their Christmas card. If she doesn’t do that, that’s such a massive shame for her,” he added.
Kate issuing an apology for editing the photo she shared speaks of her integrity, royal experts agree. But they also add that the Palace is to be blamed for such a mistake, not Kate.
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