The Associated Press, Reuters, and Agence France-Presse all released kill notifications to media outlets over the photo — released by Kensington Palace on Sunday — announcing that they would no longer be distributing the image.

The AP wrote, “it appears that the source has manipulated the image.” AFP cited an “editorial issue,” while Reuters said the photo was withdrawn after a “post-publication review.”

Following its release, social media was abuzz with sleuths questioning whether the photo was photoshopped or AI-generated. Many were focused on the cuff of Princess Charlotte’s pink cardigan, which appears to disappear in the photo.

Other users pointed out that Middleton was not wearing her wedding ring.

“no rings, kids all have their fingers crossed, weird blurring on charlotte’s cuffs, leaves on the trees despite it being early mach - i’m sorry but they’re just asking for us to go full katespiracy at this point,” one user on X wrote.

    • Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works
      0·
      8 months ago

      Little over-energetic kids do weird finger stuff sometimes when trying to hold still. But the older two also, it does look like something kids might do to protest a sham picture that lies about their mum. The lack of a wedding ring also feels significant.

      • KISSmyOS@feddit.de
        0·
        8 months ago

        Yeah, but the ring finger is all wrong. Its base doesn’t line up with the rest of it.

      • Kraiden@kbin.run
        0·
        8 months ago

        I’m an adult and I still do weird stuff with my fingers. I absolutely cross my fingers like that.

        conspiracy theorists gonna conspiracy I guess

        • FuglyDuck@lemmy.worldEnglish
          0·
          8 months ago

          My middle finger has never bended in that way, and I thing with the tendons being the way they are, curling your pointer in while crossing your ring would be… impressive…

          I suspect that they used AI to edit out something like a toy or whatever, and failed to notice.

          In any case, fidgety kids is why you take dozens of shots, whoever released that photo wasn’t paying attention

          • ChexMax@lemmy.world
            0·
            8 months ago

            I can do it with both hands. It feels awkward but not really uncomfortable. for whatever that’s worth

                • Nelots@lemm.eeEnglish
                  0·
                  8 months ago

                  Can confirm I can’t see the images on lemm.ee. And your links require people to sign up for your instance to actually view them.

                  Hopefully this link works. It does for me at least.

                  E: oh, for future reference, I was able to get a working link by going to your instance and clicking Copy Mbin URL instead of original URL

          • Nelots@lemm.eeEnglish
            0·
            8 months ago

            and I thing with the tendons being the way they are, curling your pointer in while crossing your ring would be… impressive…

            I find it incredibly easy to do. It’s mildly uncomfortable to get my middle finger in that position, but once it’s there, curling my index finger is no harder than usual.

            E: picture of my hand doing the thing

    • kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world
      0·
      8 months ago

      It is more subtle, but it looks like both of the other two children are crossing fingers as well. The boy in the middle seems to possibly be crossing his middle and ring fingers on his left hand and the girl is definitely crossing the same two fingers on her right hand. And Kate’s blurry hand on the kid’s waist makes little sense when nothing around it is motion blurred, unless, I guess, she was yanking it away at the moment the photo was taken?

      • Zozano@lemy.lol
        0·
        8 months ago

        The common denominator is the ring finger, and she’s not wearing her ring.

        If I may put on mg tinfoil hat for a moment, those kids are obviously trying to tell everyone the person in the photo is not their mother, and is in fact a cloud person from Alpha Centauri.

      • GreatDong3000@lemm.ee
        0·
        8 months ago

        The only true giveaway is the girl’s right sleeve (our left) which has some erased parts (where it meets the hand). Everything else might be weird but no way to confirm, however that sleeve is 100% edited no doubt.

        • Cethin@lemmy.zipEnglish
          0·
          8 months ago

          I’m going to be the pedantic person I guess.

          The voice isn’t really the same as the force, making people do something. It’s a kind of emotional manipulation. The Bene Gesserit are highly in tune with emotions, and they have learned to examine people and say things in a way that they can’t refuse. Jessica (and Paul to an extent) in the movie just have magic powers it seems, but the others it’s more clear what’s going on. Like when Paul is doing his speech to turn the Fremen into his followers, he’s reading them emotionally and manipulating them. (Paul is also a Mentat in the books, so he’s really good with logic too and that plays a role as well.)

          Sorry to be the book person. I hope this was interesting enough to justify ruining the joke.

    • Scubus@sh.itjust.works
      0·
      8 months ago

      Not sure where you found this photo, I clicked a bunch of the links looking for the full photo and gave up. I did notice that only the kid closest to the window actually has a reflection though.