No. It was not the Princess of Wales who committed a serious breach of protocol, but it was the people who controlled the social media accounts of the Kensington Royal who should take the blame.
Richard Eden, A Daily Mail Diary Editor said the Princess of Wales should not be the one issuing an apology. It was the job of the Kensington Palace's PR team to issue an apology.
He told the Palace Confidential: "The Princess of Wales has been 'thrown under a bus' - and her husband was 'ungentlemanly' by putting the 'onus' on her to take the blame for the Mother's Day photo blunder". He added that Kensington Palace officials behaved 'disgracefully' after Kate shared a statement on social media, apologizing 'for any confusion' the picture posted on Sunday caused.
He continues, "Essentially, she's been under so much pressure from people saying "we want a photo, we want to know how she is, tell us how she is", that sort of thing".
'And she finally issues this photograph, it's taken by Prince William - they make that clear when they issue the photograph. 'It's not some personal thing, it's issued by Kensington Palace communications people and then she has been thrown under a bus.'
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| The controversial photo taken by Prince William |
Richard said that Kate was either made to or agreed, to publish the personally signed statement. 'I think it's disgraceful,' he continued. 'It's very ungentlemanly of Prince William to put the onus on her. For goodness sake, he's the one who took the photograph.
'And the officials made it public. They gave it out, it's their job. I think it's absolutely disgraceful that they've said to her "You go and explain what you did".
Richard Eden is not the first person to put the blame on Kensington Palace officials regarding the photo controversy, even the palace staff inside Buckingham Palace are pointing fingers at Kensington staff.
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| Instagram added notice on the photo |
The Palace Courtiers
In any controversy that royals get involved in, big or small, it's always the job of the palace courtiers to clear the "damage" and think of something that takes the public attention away from the issue.
Known as the first line of defense of the monarchy, the palace courtiers' main job is to make the monarchy appear relevant and "clean" in the eyes of the people.
Palace life can sometimes be under their tight control, which made them sound like "enemies" to the royals. Princess Diana once called them, “the men in gray suits,”
Sarah, the Duchess of York described them as the “constipated, self-appointed keepers of the gate,” and Prince Harry scathingly referred to them as the “middle-aged white men who’d managed to consolidate power through a series of bold Machiavellian maneuvers.”
Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex said during the 2021 Oprah interview, about the palace courtiers, “There’s the family and then there are the people that are running the institution.”
In the latest issue about the royal family which ballooned into a global sensation stemming from the Waleses' family photo "manipulation", royal insiders said the courtiers in Buckingham Palace did not take it lightly.
A source at Buckingham Palace said some courtiers were worried because the controversy has an impact on the trust of the monarchy and its credibility to issue authentic images.
The insider said, “Some staff can’t quite believe how badly [Kensington Palace] have cocked things up by not paying close enough attention to what was being released to the world. Didn’t anyone there think to check the photo before it went out?”
The breach of protocol
Why the palace courtiers are so concerned with this latest controversy in the royal family? It's a simple issue of photoshopping an image, which everyone of course is doing. For sure, Catherine, the Princess of Wales is not the first public figure in the world to post a heavily edited photo, other celebrities are even doing worse.
But this issue appeared to be not just a simple one according to royal insiders. It was a SERIOUS BREACH OF PROTOCOL.
The palace courtiers did not blame the Princess of Wales, their blame was put on the PR team in Kensington Palace responsible for the social media accounts of the Prince and Princess of Wales.
It has something to do with the "trust" they are trying to build with the public and the credibility of the monarchy as an institution.
The palace was alarmed by the move of the major global news agencies to send a "kill notice" because it is extremely rare.
Kill notices are incredibly rare and unusual, according to The Verge. Each year, the biggest photo agencies such as Getty Images and Associated Press publish thousands of photos, and releasing a kill notice with a single image is really a big deal.
The Verge continues, "Part of the rarity comes from the fact that wire services have established relationships with the organizations that submit images to them, like Kensington Palace or NASA or the United Nations. The palace knows the editorial rules around what kind of material agencies will accept, making what they did even more brazen and a serious breach of protocol".
Before the images are published, the editors of news agencies, will review the images and look for discrepancies.
According to the Associated Press: "Photojournalists and major news organizations follow standards and ethics codes around photos. These organizations typically place an absolute premium on image authenticity and reject photographs that have been altered in any way"
“The role of photography has been to witness and to record for the moment, but also for history. And I don’t think any of us know where it’s going,” he said. The rise of visual manipulation that casts doubt on whether something is real or not “frays the fabric of the culture tremendously in the moment but also for the future.”
For generations, monarchies around the world have shaped public perception through the official images they released.
Palace courtiers are selective about what videos and photos of the royal families should be released to the public, as these media releases will directly impact the image of the monarchy.
The edited photo of Catherine, the Princess of Wales — and the subsequent kill notices from news agencies — is a misfire of historic proportions. The scandal could be seen as a sign of the royal family’s weakening grip on public perception.
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