Princess Kate’s ‘reassuring’ Mother’s Day photo ‘done completely opposite’, says royal biographer

The first picture of the Princess of Wales released by Kensington Palace after her abdominal surgery “was meant to reassure us, but has completely done the opposite”, royal biographer Hugo Vickers has said.

The image, taken by Prince William in Windsor this week, was released by the royal family to mark Mother’s Day (10 March) and showed Kate smiling surrounded by her three children.

Just hours after it was posted on social media, picture agencies including the Associated Press and Reuters issued a “kill notice” over the image and asked its clients to remove it from all platforms.

“At closer inspection, it appears that the source has manipulated the image,” AP said.