The princess of Wales might want to think twice before her next foray into digital photo editing. The international uproar over a doctored photo of the princess with her three children — sans iconic engagement ring — is probably the most sensational royal slip-up,  in terms of sheer public relations disaster, in recent memory. 

With the woman in the lens-eye of the storm being Kate Middleton and not Kim Kardashian, it is by default less easy to live this blunder down. It also raises a question: Is what happened mere trifling family embarrassment or is it symptomatic of an institutional crisis for the United Kingdom?

Considering that the Windsors also go by the moniker of “the Firm,” that is no minor faux pas but a sizable tear in the picture of a monarchy already reeling from a king suffering from cancer and the family aftershocks of  a “spare” prince’s bolting to California from Buckingham Palace. At issue, at a minimum, is the credibility of a brand to which an entire country is attached. Tardy press releases and social media tune-ups do not easily repair such breaches. 

A significant part of the royals’ duty, if not raison d’être, is simply to be seen. Queen Elizabeth accessorized her wardrobe with an array of brightly colored hats so she could be easily spotted at crowded public appearances. Yet at present not only are the most important members of the royal family practically invisible, but when one in particular does show up the public cannot be quite sure if it’s really her. That makes for bad optics.

As for the real reason why Kensington Palace does not want to release the original of the retouched photo, it may have to do with the rumor that it does not actually exist — in other words, the image that news agencies basically recalled might have been a mere collage. No one appears to know, or be willing to divulge, the story behind the story.

If on the one hand there is still concern and great affection for a king battling an undisclosed but obviously worrisome form of cancer, a 76-year-old queen forced to hold the reins of the clan in her hands, and an heir to the throne who divides his time between official commitments, his wife, and his young children, the fallout over the baffling photo episode  is undeniable.

Even a newspaper like the Financial Times, which generally pays little attention to the vicissitudes of the royals, has no choice but  to cover the chaos: “The photograph was intended to reassure the public about the health conditions of the Princess of Wales. It achieved the opposite,” a well-known biographer of Queen Elizabeth, Clive Irving, wrote in one of the newspaper’s reports.  He added: “With the announcement of Charles’ illness and Kate’s problems it was believed we were entering an era of greater transparency, while this is not the case.”

It is still not known from what type of cancer the king is suffering, nor what Catherine of Wales’s  health problems really are — not with any great specificity anyway.  In the meantime, the unsubstantiated reports that relationship issues involving her husband and heir to the throne, Prince William, are taking their toll on the brand image and are only increasing. 

To put some of that hype into historical perspective, after several decades people still banter about certain issues in the marriage of President Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy as if they occurred yesterday. The public’s appetite for gossip about the personal lives of  public figures does not diminish with time — with social media, the appetites are as boundless as they are potentially toxic.

Sources close to the princess have reportedly said that she would be seriously saddened to have caused an additional headache for the beleaguered royals. In reality, the fault is not so much hers as that of an entourage seemingly unable to avoid the misstep. 

If it really was her, as she herself said in a statement released on social media, who took the photo, then why did her press officers fail to comprehend that the first official image of the royal released since Christmas Day — indeed the first after her operation for “planned abdominal surgery” — would be scrutinized with a global magnifying glass?

Some surmise that the error occurred because the princess of Wales’s communications team is relatively new, but that would hardly make the gaffe any more forgivable. This is the House of Windsor, not a Silicon Valley start-up with a name dreamed up after a two-hour marketing meeting. 

So trust in the global brand has taken a big hit — had this happened to the media-savvy duchess of Sussex or even Donald Trump, for that matter, the results could have been more consequential for their respective careers.

For Kate, the dust will settle even if the mystery endures. The British press will return to respecting the privacy of a surprisingly enigmatic woman who, after all, is also the mother of three children. No doubt they are affected by her health problems — whatever they might actually be.