In case you missed it, soon after the Princess of Wales “apologized” for altering her Mother’s Day photo, the Keen Defenders rapidly came up with their new talking points: poor Kate, she just needs to recover, everyone manipulates photos, whomst among us has not disappeared for 70-plus days and then created Frankenphotos as proof of life while married to the future king of England? As I said yesterday, this is a constitutional issue, not a personal issue. Kensington Palace cobbled together a poorly-edited Frankenphoto, then passed it out to media outlets to publish as proof of life, then the photo was “killed” by six major media agencies, and then KP (likely) forged Kate’s name on a statement in which “she” took the blame. Not only that, palace insiders ran to the Times to throw Kate under the bus even harder and say that the whole thing was her fault. Kensington Palace threw Kate under the bus thoroughly, so they don’t get to now cry about how everyone is being mean to Kate. That’s exactly what they’re doing though – palace aides and “insiders” ran to Becky English at the Mail, and she dutifully laid it on thick for poor Kate:
The Princess of Wales has been left ‘shellshocked’ at the furore around her Mother’s Day picture. Several well-placed sources in royal circles have told the Mail that Kate and her team have found the public fallout over the ‘edited’ photograph taken by Prince William of her with their children deeply ‘upsetting’.
One said that while they acknowledged a mistake had been made, many felt it was time to ‘move on’ and allow the Princess to focus on her recovery from abdominal surgery and her children. They said: ‘Everyone, including the Princess, is a bit shellshocked by what has happened. A mistake was made but she has put her hand up and apologised. It’s been very upsetting all round. But a lot of people feel it is time to acknowledge the error was made in good faith, as was her apology, and move on.’
While [Kate’s] clearly genuine apology has mollified some, critics maintain that the debacle has damaged the palace’s reputation for honesty. But it is clear that many in the royal household and beyond are now circling their wagons around the princess. Multiple sources have told the Mail that while she has no personal presence on social media, Kate has inevitably become aware of some of what has been said in recent weeks and has, understandably, found it distressing. She is understood to be ‘disappointed’ about what has resulted after an attempt to ‘just put out a nice picture of her kids’. But she now wants to focus on ‘what is important in her life — her children — and her recovery’.
Another source was reported as saying that she just wanted the image to be ‘perfect’ for her children, whom she is so proud of, knowing that the picture would be so publicly scrutinised. A third supporter told the Mail: ‘It was a mistake, although I would say retouching or editing of pictures is very common in the news industry, as well as at home. That’s not to dismiss what has happened. Lessons will have been learnt. But it’s got a bit out of control from a social media perspective and now it’s time to draw a line under it. The amount of pressure and scrutiny that poor woman is under right now, she just wanted to do the best for her kids. This really isn’t going to help her recovery.’
While some have called for ‘heads to roll’ at the palace, one insider told the Mail ‘that would never happen’.
‘The prince and princess are very loyal to their staff and would never, ever hang one of them out to dry. That simply isn’t their style,’ they said. ‘The princess would also have wanted to tell the truth, which was the most important thing, and she did.’
“The prince and princess are very loyal to their staff and would never, ever hang one of them out to dry.” Oh, honey. Kate is the one being hung out to dry. From a managerial standpoint, from a corporate standpoint, this is the moment to blame an underling or fire someone and hang it around the former employee’s neck. Instead, Prince William AND HIS STAFF publicly blamed Kate for their mistake. As many have said/theorized, it’s more than likely that Kate did not have a hand in any part of this, from the poorly-cobbled together Frankenphoto to the public release of the photo to the statement in which “she” took the blame.
Besides which… this entire debacle shows why KP needs new staff from top to bottom. You’re going to let one of your “principals” take the fall for this catastrophe, a woman who allegedly had major abdominal surgery and couldn’t be seen whatsoever for more than two months? And now those same people who tossed Kate under the bus are the ones crying to Becky English that we should leave Kate alone.
Photos courtesy of Instar, Kensington Palace.