On Monday, the Daily Mail was beside itself with glee that they got to publish a Kensington Palace-authorized photo of Prince William and a shadow they claimed was the Princess of Wales. The photo was supposedly taken on Monday, in Windsor, as William left Adelaide Cottage to be chauffeured to Westminster Abbey for the Commonwealth Day service. William’s staff immediately told the Mail that William was “dropping off” Kate at a “private appointment” on his way to the Abbey. The problem, as internet sleuths quickly deduced, was that there’s literally no proof that the shadowy figure is Kate, and the uncropped photo looks hella manipulated too because the brick background doesn’t match whatsoever:
Yall!? Has no one else noticed that the most recent photo of #KateMiddleton in the car… the bricks in the car windows, don’t appear to match the bricks outside the car…
Is this another photoshopped picture… can anyone find the original they clipped it from? #KateGate WTF?! pic.twitter.com/D730OsfJCI
— Indomitable (@NdomitableNegro) March 12, 2024
Before 2024, we probably would have not bothered forming much of a conspiracy theory about this. People would have noted the inconsistent bricks but, since Kate was seen regularly in public, people would have just shrugged and moved on with their day. But given all of the shenanigans – a missing princess, a scandalous Frankenphoto, Kensington Palace’s loss of credibility – it seems quite sane to question what the hell is going on with this dumb photo. Well, the New York Post spoke to the photographer, who swore up and down that the photo is legit and not manipulated.
The paparazzo who snapped the pic of Kate Middleton riding alongside Prince William in a car Monday is speaking out to quash online conspiracy theories that the photo was doctored.
“We don’t change our photos in Photoshop other than adjusting the light levels if necessary,” photographer Jim Bennett told The Post. Bennett said he and a partner were hired by a news outlet to get a shot of Prince William heading to Westminster Abbey for a royal event.
“The cars left Windsor Castle and I photographed them a short distance away on Datchet High Street — outside No. 39, to be precise!” he said. “Car shots are unpredictable at the best of times and with some reflection on the glass, it can be difficult.”
He added: “As it happened, it wasn’t until I checked on the back of the camera to make sure I had a frame of Prince William that I realized there was someone sitting next to him. It turned out to be Catherine!”
Bennett’s account addresses speculation that Middleton’s silhouette was edited into the photo – and clears up the misconception that the image was released by the royal family. Instead, it was taken by a professional photographer and then syndicated in the US by the photo agency GoffPhotos.
Sleuths have compared the profile of Middleton in Bennett’s photo to a shot of the princess at a 2016 ceremony, speculating that she was edited into the new photo alongside her husband. Others have noted inconsistencies with the pattern of bricks seen above the car and through its windows. However the Datchet High Street address provided by Bennett also seems to debunk suspicions of forgery. Though the grouting between the bricks does appear inconsistent in the photo, closer inspection of the building shows an outer brick wall at car level, which has notably different grouting than what is visible on the building itself higher up.
When one conspiracy dies, ten more rise from the ashes – so, let’s assume that the brick issue has been solved and that the brick wall background has been explained. I’ll even go so far as saying that I believe that he didn’t Photoshop the back of Kate’s head into the photo. This is legitimately a photo of William in the backseat with a woman who turned away from the camera. It’s also worth noting that if Bennett got the call to go to this one place and take Huevo’s photo, then the whole thing was probably a set-up from start to finish, which we knew already given the palace briefing to the Mail. KP told the Mail: send a photographer to this location to get this photo. The Mail sent a stringer and packaged the whole thing with Kensington Palace’s approval. After KP leaned so hard on every British outlet to get them to refuse to publish the pic of Kate and Carole last week, this was the quid pro quo, another palace-authorized photoshoot. So much for respecting the sanctity of Kate’s privacy and her delicate recovery. That’s over now!
Photographer who snapped Kate Middleton hits out at claims image was doctored: ‘We don’t change our photos’ https://t.co/XQ4XhtGiiz pic.twitter.com/klGN4qdMxX
— New York Post (@nypost) March 12, 2024
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Cover Images.