Prince William and Kate Middleton Defy Photo Agencies

Prince William and Princess Kate bypassed photo agencies to release their Prince Louis birthday image on social media—a month after Kensington Palace was deemed an unreliable source of information.

The Princess of Wales had to apologize for editing a Mother's Day photo of her with her three children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Louis, in March.

It was a moment of humiliation at a time of crisis and followed kill notices being issued by leading picture agencies, who said the image had been manipulated.

In a low for the royals, Phil Chetwynd, the global news director of Agence France-Presse (AFP), told BBC Radio 4's The Media Show that Kensington Palace was no longer viewed as a "trusted source."

A month on and it seems the wounds have not entirely healed as William and Kate chose to rip up the rule book for distributing family portraits.

Ordinarily, an image would be sent out via picture agencies under embargo the day before one of their children's birthdays. Those agencies would then distribute it to news outlets around the world.

However, that system left the palace vulnerable, as picture agencies found Kate's Mother's Day editing had failed to meet their editorial standards.

So for Louis' birthday they went straight to social media, where news outlets were still able to pick up the image for use in stories.

Ingrid Seward, author of My Mother and I, told Newsweek: "It would have been a shame if the drama over the Mother's Day picture stopped them from ever putting pictures out again.

"They would be the victims then, wouldn't they? So I think its quite right that they've done this."

Birthday images taken by Kate have become a longstanding tradition for the Wales family—one that could have been in jeopardy after the kill notices.

"They've obviously decided that they want to be in control, which I completely understand," Seward said. "I should think they just think, Right, we're never going to use a picture agency again, we're going to do it ourselves. We employ 40 people, surely someone can do this for us?

"I would do the same. I think its just another nail in the coffin of agency photography."

The Mother's Day picture is not the first time Kate has been accused of editing pictures, as two past images sparked news stories about discrepancies in the detail.

However, it came at a particularly sensitive time because speculation was rife on social media about why Kate had, at the time, not appeared in public since Christmas Day.

When it emerged the only official image to be released of her in months contained numerous signs of editing, the existing conspiracy theories went into overdrive.

Ultimately, the saga bounced William, Kate and the palace into announcing that the princess had been diagnosed with cancer.

There have been no allegations regarding editing of the Prince Louis birthday photo, however it may still come as a relief to the family to know their reputations are not in the hands of picture editors in media organizations they do not control.

Jack Royston is Newsweek's chief royal correspondent based in London. You can find him on X, formerly Twitter, at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.

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