What else don’t the royals want us to see?

Editorial: The fallout from a heartwarming snap of the Princess of Wales with her children will have consequences for the monarchy’s handlers and may have done lasting damage to the royal family’s public image

The Princess of Wales’s Mother’s Day photograph was ‘killed’ by news agencies after several apparent errors were spotted in it (Kensington Palace)

On first reading, the row about the Princess of Wales’s Mothering Sunday photograph appears to be the epitome of royal trivia. According to the explanation that eventually emerged from Kensington Palace, the “manipulation” of the image was no more sinister than the bumbling of an amateur photographer and inexpert user of the Adobe Photoshop software package or the like. In the words of Kate herself: “Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing...”

Unfortunately for her, as well as for Prince William and their advisers, it also seems that they occasionally like to “experiment” with their comms strategy, too.

In the case of this unfortunate snap – already referred to in tabloid circles as “Kategate” – it has had some calamitous consequences for their public image, and for the trust the public invest in the institution of the monarchy. And that is not a trivial matter. To put it plainly, and despite some spectacular PR failures over the years, the public expect rather more from the royal family than they do from, say, their political leaders, in relation to whom fake news is no shocker.