The doctored photo purporting to show the Princess of Wales and her children on Mother’s Day was likely a composite and “a copy and paste function was used, most likely in the section featuring her face,” according to a forensic analysis by the Telegraph, a major British broadsheet. 

The revelation comes amid a full-scale uproar over the Princess’s well-being, which erupted over the weekend – after stewing for weeks – when, on Sunday, the Associated Press and other news agencies “killed” the Mother’s Day photo, which had been released by Kensington Palace, when editors decided it had been doctored and violated their news standards.

If the Palace released the photo to quell concerns about the health of the Princess, who has not been seen, other than glimpses in two paparazzi photos, for months, the move backfired badly. 

Since January, when the palace announced the Princess had undergone “abdominal surgery,” would be in the hospital for two weeks, and would not resume her royal duties until after Easter, Great Britain has been convulsed by speculation. The rumors and reports became so bizarre (including reports that the Princess was suffering from complications from a “Brazilian butt lift”) that the Palace made indignant statements denouncing scurrilous reports and claiming all was well. 

But despite these protestations, the Palace did not release any concrete evidence of the Princess’s well-being until the disastrous release over the weekend of the Mother’s Day photo.

That brouhaha began on Sunday, when the palace distributed the photo of the Princess and her three children, George, Charlotte and Louis, to mark Great Britain’s Mother’s Day. It was the first authorized photo of the Princess since was photographed with well wishers at Sandringham, on Christmas.  

But speculation over the photo’s authenticity quickly arose. The Princess did not appear to be wearing her famous wedding ring; the trees in the background were in bloom despite the photo being taken in March; and multiple other inconsistencies and flaws were found in the photo, which would suggest the image to be a composite of multiple different images. 

According to the Telegraph, which studied the photo properties, which for some reason were not removed by the Palace officials who released the photo, the “composite” method of cutting and pasting the Princess’s face “appears to be confirmed by the clear horizontal line stretching across the Princess’s chest, albeit not exactly in line.”

Users on X, formerly Twitter, claim the image of the Princess’s face was lifted from her Vogue cover in June 2016.  Others, however, questioned the theory, as the Vogue portrait appears to have differences in lighting, among other factors.  

Only hours after the photo’s release, five of the most prominent photo distribution agencies, Getty, Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, Shutterstock and Reuters, quickly issued “kill notices” to halt the distribution of the photo. According to a post by the AP, the agency noticed, “At closer inspection, it appears that the source has manipulated the image” and that, “No replacement photo will be sent.”

According to the Telegraph’s analysis, different parts of the photo appear to have the signatures of different cameras.

According to the photo’s metadata, the main part of the image was taken on Friday at Windsor’s Adelaide Cottage, where the Waleses maintain one of their residences. The first edit, made using Adobe Photoshop with an Apple Mac, was made at 9:54 P.M. on Friday evening, with the second edit made at 9:39 A.M. on Saturday morning. 

The photo was taken by the Prince of Wales on a high-end Canon Mark IV, according to the outlet, which costs about $2,300. 

After the news agencies pulled the photo, the Palace released a statement attributed to the Princess herself, in which she took the blame for the editing. “I do occasionally experiment with editing. I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused,” said the statement, which ended with a Mother’s Day salutation and was signed “C.”

The Princess does appear to be alive and staying on the grounds of Windsor Palace. On Monday, she was photographed by paparazzi inside her car, being dropped off by William on a private errand on his way to the Commonwealth Sunday service at Westminster Abbey. The camera only captured her silhouette through the car window. The previous week, a grainy photo of her wearing sunglasses and being driven outside London by her mother, purportedly on the school run, was published in the U.S. by TMZ. 

The Princess has mentioned her interest in photography in the past. During a visit to the University of Nottingham in October, the Princess stated that she “also tried out the photography club at university, which was great and I met totally new friends, and that’s something I continue to love and enjoy now.” Over the years, she has released photos she has taken of her family to the public. She is also a patron of the National Portrait Gallery and the Royal Photographic Society.

Kensington Palace has refused further comment on the photo, beyond the statement attributed to the Princess. It is also refusing to release the original photo (which would be impossible, if the image were indeed a composite).