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Royal fans today made further outrageous claims about the Mother’s Day photograph issued by Kensington Palace, which has been mired in controversy since Sunday.
The image was the first time Kate, 42, had been officially pictured since undergoing abdominal surgery in January.
But in an extraordinary development on Sunday, not 24 hours after it had been posted, foreign picture agencies including Reuters, AP, Getty and AFP withdrew the picture, saying it may have been digitally manipulated.
The photo which was initially meant to quell bizarre and outlandish social media conspiracy theories has instead had the opposite effect as the internet exploded with more illogical stories about the Princess of Wales, and the origin of the Mother’s Day photo.
One such weird conspiracy theory came from Allyn Aston on TikTok, who took the bizarre speculation to a new level. In an illogical twist, she claimed the photo had been manipulated from an event in November 2023 in which Kate and the children visited a baby bank, and suggested it was not, in fact, taken last week.
Allyn Aston posted a clip on TikTok, where she 216,000 followers, claiming that the photo of Kate Middleton with her three children issued by Kensington Palace on Mother’s Day was a mash up of pictures taken in November 2023
After the kill notices were issued by the agencies, the Princess of Wales posted an explanation for the inconsistencies in the photo on Kensington Palace’s social media accounts.
In a message signed off with ‘C’, meaning it has come from Catherine, 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.’
However, this explanation wasn’t enough for some on social media, who continued to make outlandish claims about the origins of the photo.
Allyn Aston posted a clip on TikTok in which she claimed that the photograph was not only edited but actually created using a mash up of photographs that were released last November.
The clip, which is over three minutes long, starts with the comment: ‘We all know this photo has probably been photoshopped to hell and back’.
The TikToker, who has 216,100 followers on the platform, then goes further, claiming that the photograph was ‘taken back in November of 2023 – or some version of this photo’.
Her argument, she says, is supported by Kate’s outfit and the outfits of Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis – despite the fact that none of the outfits worn by the four people in the photo completely match what they were wearing during the baby bank visit.
The clip, which has been viewed 770,600 times, then cuts to a screengrab of a news story about Kate’s visit with her three children to The Baby Bank in Maidenhead, which took place in November 2023.
It goes on: ‘If you know anything about Kate Middleton, you know that people obsessively track her fashion, so of course I was able to find a bunch of blogs breaking down exactly what she was wearing’.
Pointing out the cream turtle neck sweater that Kate was wearing at The Baby Bank, Aston claims: ‘It’s photoshopped, I think they changed around the clothes on the photo’.
The clip then cuts back to the Mother’s Day photograph of Kate and her three children, drawing viewers’ attention to the neckline of her sweater, which, according to the TikToker, is an exact match with the one she wore back in November.
More convincing still, claims Aston, is the way the sweater ‘lands on her thigh area’.
She reaches the conclusion that since Kate’s sweater is only made in cream and camel, it must be the same one – just photoshopped to be made darker.
But the TikTok user doesn’t stop there. Rather, she goes on to point out that Kate’s wearing the exact same boots in yesterday’s shot as she wore in November in Maidenhead – apparently not considering that many people wear their shoes more than once.
Aston based her theory on the clothes that the supposed similarities between the clothes royals were wearing in the November images and the clothes they were wearing in the Mother’s Day image
Moving on to Princess Charlotte, she points out the ruffled neckline on her sweater in the Mother’s Day photograph. She then returns to the picture from November and guides the viewer’s eye to what she believes is the same ruffled neckline.
Her next outlandish claim is that the photograph issued on Mother’s Day pulled Charlotte’s sweater from the November event and ‘just added another sweater on top’.
She equally believes Charlotte’s boots are the same, as well as her tights.
Moving onto Prince George’s outfit, Aston claims that it is the same one he wore at The Baby Bank in November. The fact that his jumper in the Mother’s Day photo is lighter and the collar of the shirt worn underneath is darker is simply the work of photoshop.
She overlooks Prince Louis, but still reaches her grand conclusion: ‘It’s weird to me that Kate is wearing a sweater that looks suspiciously exactly like that cream sweater except just happens to be darker with the same exact shoes and the same exact kind of looking pants and then her daughter’s wearing the same exact sweater with the ruffled neck with the same exact shoes and possibly the same tights…’
The TikTok user acknowledges that Princess Charlotte’s skirt is different, but she doesn’t let it get in the way of her theory.
Instead she claims that her skirt in the Mother’s Day photo ‘juts out and it doesn’t make any sense’, presumably implying that it was simply mapped on using Photoshop.
After restating her claim that the photo dates back to November but has been ‘tinkered’ with so as not to raise eyebrows, she admits: ‘I’m sure a lot of people call me crazy and I’m used to it so go ahead.’
The TikTok clip was reposted on Twitter, where it has been viewed well over four million times – and counting
The clip garnered tens of thousands of comments on TikTok. It was reposted on X, formerly Twitter, where it has been viewed four million times – and counting.
On TikTok, the majority of viewers seemed to subscribe to @allynaston bizarre analysis.
One person posted: ‘Yooooooo! This is it! This is the explanation for why they refuse to release the original to AP. Because editing is not the problem, backdating is.’
Another tried to further develop Aston’s argument by focusing on Prince Louis’s attire. They wrote : ‘OMG I looked up the photos and the youngest child is wearing a patterned sweater with that exact collared shirt underneath!’
A third sought confirmation of the conspiracy theory by focusing on the background to the image. They wrote: ‘Also the UK isn’t that bright and green in late Winter.’
One person, however, was keen to do away with all the speculation, She posted: ‘She just left an announcement, Kate edited like a lot of mums do! Concentrate on your own country’.
A number of people took to the comments section, sharing their views on Aston’s claims
People were equally taken in by Aston’s claims on Twitter, where the original TikTok clip was reposted
On X, the comments were equally farfetched. The person who reposted the clip, who goes by @lmxstn, agreed with someone who claimed: ‘Seems quite sensible analysis to me’.
@lmxstn then replied: ‘Truly hate that I’ve become a conspiracy theorist but the more I look, the more bizarre it all becomes.’
Another X user continued to add fuel to the fire, posting: ‘lol same but like one HAS to admit at this point that something is so wrong and so off. What are they hiding I wanna knowwwww’.
FEMAIL has contacted Kensington Palace for comment.
