New Kate Middleton Photo Sparks Wild Conspiracies

A new photo of Kate Middleton, capturing the first time she has been seen in two months, has triggered a series of unfounded conspiracy theories, some of which have been inspired by AI manipulation, Newsweek has discovered.

TMZ ran a photo on Monday taken as Kate sat in the passenger seat of a car driven by her mother, Carole Middleton. The U.S. tabloid website said the images, taken seemingly on a long lens, were captured near Windsor Castle.

Kensington Palace has not commented on the photos, having released a statement in January announcing that the Princess of Wales had undergone surgery, pleading for privacy.

The photo has been enough to inspire a series of spurious rumors and theories that have, in part, been furthered by the use of AI-generated photo software, which Newsweek has examined.

The Disappearing 'Mole'

One popular claim has been that a "mole" on Kate's right cheek, visible in other photos, could not be seen in a version of the paparazzi picture shared on social media.

A post on X, formerly Twitter, by user @CilComLFC, posted on March 4, 2023, viewed 1.4 million times, said: "Prior to her abdominal surgery, Kate Middleton had a mole above her lip. In today's picture, it appears to have magically vanished.

"Is the Royal Family lying to us?"

The claim was repeated and widely shared elsewhere on X.

A TikTok by influencer Jessica Weslie Arena, posted on Tuesday, viewed 1.2 million times, showed the same photo, noting that Kate's "beauty mark is missing. It is MIA."

"We're going to need Sherlock Holmes to find this beauty mark," Arena added.

However, the photo shared as proof of the missing "mole" appears to have been AI-generated. The original image published by TMZ contains grainy artifacts, seemingly a result of the low lighting and the distance from where it was shot. The picture used to make claims about this facial feature did not include these artifacts.

Fashion photographer and influencer Caroline Ross posted a step-by-step explanation via TikTok on Tuesday about how the images had been altered.

Ross said the original picture had been run through "software that brings back detail." Ross posted her own example, showing the original photo and the same photo after it had been run through AI generation software, noting that it fills in missing details and pixels. Ross' version is a near exact match of the other altered images that were shared on TikTok and X.

The edited version also contains superfluous details that cannot be seen in the original. There are strands of hair across Kate's forehead, grey hairs, and blurring above her head and to the left of her face. The bridge of her sunglasses is also uneven, the right frame of her sunglasses is bent upward, and the right lens is inconsistently dark and light. There are also lights shining back in her lenses that do not match the lighting conditions of the photo.

The "mole" is also barely visible in many photos of Kate shot at close range and with better light, let alone under the conditions of the picture published by TMZ.

Newsweek has contacted Kensington Palace for comment.

An Undefined Royal

The photo's lack of resolution was also questioned.

Celebrity TikTok influencer Sussan Mourad highlighted this in a video posted on Tuesday, viewed 134,600 times. Mourad posted footage from a Rihanna concert, taken by what appeared to be a phone camera, that captured relatively decent detail of the performer, despite it being shot from the back of the concert hall.

Text on top of the video read: "So someone shot this on an iPhone and you're telling us that nobody could get a clear photo of Kate Middleton in the car?!"

However, the photo of Kate was taken of a moving object, from a distance, the subject behind a sheet of glass, shaded by the roof of the car.

It's likely the photo was shot at a high shutter speed to reduce the chance of motion blur and increase the crispness of the image. Shooting at a higher shutter speed also reduces the amount of light let into the photo.

By comparison, the Rihanna concert footage is brightened by stage lights, and is not compromised by other obstructions, or that the performer is not in a moving vehicle. The concert also captured a wider image of the subject, whose face becomes a muddy blur when the footage is paused and zoomed in on.

Mystery Second Car

Some have pointed out what looks like a separate set of tires behind the car in the photo.

David Kurten, leader of the right-wing U.K. Heritage Party, wrote in a post on X seen 178,000 times: "It is rather odd that that the car in yesterday's picture of Catherine, Princess of Wales, otherwise known as Kate Middleton, has 6 wheels - 2 of which seem discombobulated."

As suggested by Community Notes contributors on X, another explanation is that they are the stumps of trees that can be seen in the background.

Logically, the photographer would have wanted more detail, not less, particularly if they could have captured other people traveling with Kate. Regardless, it's not clear what importance can be gleaned from removing an object, beyond driving speculation that the photo has been altered in some way.

A Palace Setup?

Another idea is that the photo was set up through Kensington Palace. A post on X by podcaster Kristen Meinzer, viewed 81,300 times, said: "Note to Kensington Palace: Yes, it was smart to finally release a photo of Kate Middleton -especially a 'candid' pap shot from a rag outside the royal rota. But next time, might I suggest a clearer pic? Or more pics? Ideally with Kate in the sunlight and without sunglasses?"

While Kensington Palace has not commented on the photo, its publication could amount to a breach of privacy and may provide grounds for litigation. The photo has not been used in U.K. media in adherence to privacy rights observed by most U.K. news publications.

The likelihood of the palace releasing a photo to the press, who then may risk litigation by publishing it, seems, at face value, vanishingly thin.

"It's a breach of privacy essentially," Mark Stephens, an attorney at U.K.-based law firm Howard Kennedy, told Newsweek on Tuesday. "It's more difficult to sue TMZ because they're based in America, but anyone who republishes them here [could be sued].

"I imagine they won't, and it will be interesting to see whether they are taken down from social media."

While following what appear to be arguably more serious breaches, the Royal family has successfully pursued recourse against media outlets following the publication of other photos.

In 2019, Prince Harry accepted a "significant" settlement after a news agency flew a helicopter over his Cotswolds home in the U.K. to take photographs.

In 2017, a French magazine and two of its staffers were ordered to pay the British royal family about $226,000 in damages and fines after they printed topless photos of the Duchess of Cambridge in 2012.

And in 1993, Princess Diana sued the Daily Mirror for publishing photos of her exercising in a gym. The matter was settled out of court in 1995 after apologies from the newspaper and gym owner.