![\"Princess](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/princess-kate.jpg\")
Downing Street \u2018would have thought Palace unprofessional\u2019 over Kate photo row | <\/p>\nDowning Street likely believed Kensington Palace had been \u201cfoolish and unprofessional\u201d in its handling of the Princess of Wales\u2019s photo editing, according to royal author Valentine Low.<\/p>\n
The controversy erupted in March 2024 when Kensington Palace released a Mother\u2019s Day photograph of the Princess of Wales with her three children. <\/p>\n
Within hours, major news agencies including Reuters, Associated Press and Agence France-Presse issued rare retractions, citing \u201cmanipulation\u201d and \u201cinconsistencies\u201d in the image.<\/p>\n
The decision by international agencies to pull the picture fuelled a wave of speculation about the Princess\u2019s health, which had already been the subject of intense scrutiny following her abdominal surgery that January.<\/p>\n
GETTY<\/p>\n
Days later, the Princess of Wales issued a statement acknowledging she \u201coccasionally experimented with editing\u201d and apologised for the confusion the altered image had caused.<\/p>\n
Speaking exclusively to GB News, Mr Low said: \u201cI don\u2019t know exactly what Downing Street thought, but I suspect they would have considered the Palace foolish and unprofessional.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the same time, they would have had sympathy for them, and they absolutely were not going to do anything that would make matters worse. That is how I imagine the Downing Street view to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
In his new book Power and the Palace, Mr Low describes the moment as one of the most unusual intersections between politics and royal life.<\/p>\n
![\"Kate](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/kate-middleton.jpg\")
KENSINGTON ROYAL \/ X<\/p>\n
He points to a Daily Mail column published at the height of the controversy by veteran royal writer Richard Kay, who compared the handling of the situation to the breakdown of the marriage of Charles and Diana.<\/p>\n
Mr Kay argued that the Royal Family was at \u201cthe eleventh hour\u201d over the doctored photograph and the announcement of the King\u2019s cancer diagnosis, writing that John Major had failed to intervene during the Charles and Diana crisis in the 1990s, and that Rishi Sunak was \u201cmissing in action\u201d in 2024.<\/p>\n
Mr Low questioned that assessment. \u201cI would argue that actually Major was significantly involved in the Charles and Diana crisis,\u201d he wrote, \u201cand it would be interesting to find out from Kay exactly what more he thinks either prime minister should have done.\u201d<\/p>\n
The scandal over the edited photo became a turning point in public discussion of the Princess of Wales\u2019s role, the Palace\u2019s media strategy and the balance between privacy and transparency.<\/p>\n
![\"Rishi](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/rishi-sunak.jpg\")
Rishi Sunak was the Prime Minister at the time of the scandal<\/p>\n
| REUTERS![\"John](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/john-major-and-princess-diana.jpg\")
John Major was known to have sympathy with Princess Diana<\/p>\n
| <\/p>\n
PA<\/p>\n
Critics accused Kensington Palace of undermining trust by distributing a manipulated image without explanation, while supporters pointed to the Princess\u2019s ill health and the unprecedented pressures she faced.<\/p>\n
Mr Low suggested that while Downing Street would never have directly intervened, officials may have quietly shared the view that the Palace mishandled the episode.<\/p>\n
But he believes ministers would also have recognised the human sensitivity of the situation and avoided any actions that could exacerbate the controversy.<\/p>\n
The photo row, combined with the King\u2019s cancer diagnosis just weeks earlier, ensured that the spring of 2024 was one of the most turbulent periods for the monarchy in years.<\/p>\n
It also reinforced the enduring scrutiny of the Princess of Wales, whose appearances and statements continue to carry significant weight for the institution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Downing Street likely believed Kensington Palace had been \u201cfoolish and unprofessional\u201d in its handling of the Princess of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":421836,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7708],"tags":[7709,7714,7713,12190,533,285,2832,532,2831,5105,7710,519,3106,7711,7712],"class_list":{"0":"post-421835","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-royals","8":"tag-british-royal-family","9":"tag-catherine","10":"tag-catherine-middleton","11":"tag-downing-street","12":"tag-kate-middleton","13":"tag-politics","14":"tag-prince-of-wales","15":"tag-prince-william","16":"tag-princess-of-wales","17":"tag-royal","18":"tag-royal-families","19":"tag-royal-family","20":"tag-uk-politics","21":"tag-uk-royal-family","22":"tag-william"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115198627942896101","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421835\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}