A photo of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle which announced the Duchess’s pregnancy with Lilibet was edited after it was taken, it has been revealed.
Misan Harriman, the London-based photographer who took the intimate black-and-white photo of the royal couple in 2021, which was shared around the world to announce Meghan’s second pregnancy, has previously discussed how the final image was not quite what he had originally taken, and that editing had been carried out on the file.
In a resurfaced recording on the Private Passions podcast on BBC Radio 3, the Sussexes’ long-time friend Mr Harriman said: ‘It’s amazing what you can do with technology’ as he explained how the final image had been created, describing it as ‘virtual shooting’.
It comes as friends of Harry and Meghan waded into the social media storm surrounding Kensington Palace’s photo editing gaffe, after the Princess of Wales admitted to ‘experimenting with editing’ on the Mother’s Day photo of herself with her children.
Earlier today sources close to the Sussexes said Harry and Meghan would have been ‘annihilated’ if they had made the same Photoshop mistake as Kate – but added the Duchess would not have slipped up due to ‘freakish attention to detail’.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s camp have been branded ‘hypocrites’ after it emerged their pregnancy photo had been doctored
However, after it emerged that the picture-perfect photo of Harry and Meghan’s second baby announcement was doctored to add a willow tree in the background, royal expert Angela Levin branded the couple’s camp as ‘hypocrites’.
She told The Sun: ‘A tree was doctored in their photograph to create a special backdrop so how dare their camp say anything about Catherine’s?’
In a resurfaced recording of Mr Harriman on the Private Passions podcast, the photographer said: ‘My most well-known virtual shoot is the portrait I took of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announcing their pregnancy.’
He revealed that he took the photo remotely, as he was in a different location to the royal couple during the pandemic, and used technology that allowed him to communicate with the Sussexes, telling them how to pose, while remotely ‘pressing the shutter’ from a completely different place.
The podcast host added: ‘They weren’t actually under a willow tree, were they? They were lying outside in a meadow, weren’t they?’
Mr Harriman replied: ‘Yeah they were lost in their love, at home, in their garden, comfortable, celebrating new joy.’
The Princess of Wales admitted on Monday that the Mother’s Day photo released by Kensington Palace had been Photoshopped
The revelation comes as the Princess of Wales is said to be ‘feeling miserable’ following a social media storm caused by a photoshopped image released by Kensington Palace on Sunday to mark Mother’s Day.
Bizarre and unfounded conspiracy theories were fuelled by the ‘photoshopped’ image of Kate, 42, and her children Prince George, 10, Princess Charlotte, eight, and Prince Louis, five, after international news agencies issued kill notices on the snap.
As the theories threaten to spiral out of control, many have suggested the speculation could be quashed if Kensington Palace releases the original photo of Kate and her children, before it had been edited.
And seasoned royal fans may remember that this is exactly how the Duke and Duchess of Sussex handled their own ‘photoshop-gate’, when they were accused of altering their 2019 Christmas card featuring Prince Archie.
Fans thought that the adorable photo of the couple with their eldest son may have been edited because Meghan’s face was in sharp focus, despite the fact she was in the back of the photo.
The snap shows Harry and Meghan smiling as they sit on the ground by their Christmas tree, while Archie, who was little more than six months old at the time, crawled towards the camera with an inquisitive expression.
After people spotted that Meghan’s face was more in focus than Harry’s, despite the pair both being in the background of the snap, social media was ablaze with theories that the snap had been edited to bring the Duchess closer into focus.
‘Check out Meghan’s face, it is Photoshopped. Her face is clear and everything else is blurred. Archie’s is also photo shopped,’ one person claimed.
Another posted on X/Twitter: ‘This is quite possibly the worst Photoshopped picture I have ever seen. And again with the black and white.’
The card was not officially released through any official royal channels, and first appeared on an unverified X account called The Queen’s Commonwealth Trust.
However, despite mass speculation that the snap may have been altered, Meghan’s friend Janina Gavankar, who claims to have taken the photo, shared the original fram on her Instagram account – which appeared to be exactly the same photo as the later version which was shared on the X account.
She posted the photo with the caption: ‘So proud to have taken the Christmas photo for one of my best friends and her family’ and clarified it was the original.
After Kate confirmed on Monday that she had edited the Mother’s Day image released on the Prince and Princess of Wales’s official channels, many suggested she could easily shut down speculation about what had happened by doing the same thing and sharing the original, unedited photo.
Kate’s statement read: ‘Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing.
‘I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused. I hope everyone celebrating had a very happy Mother’s Day.’
It has been claimed today that, following the gaffe, the Princess of Wales is ‘feeling miserable’ and will likely be in a ‘fragile mental and physical state’.
Royal commentator Jennie Bond, who has reported on the Royal Family for several decades, told GB News it was time for people to ‘lay off’ the Princess following the scandal.
She said Kate ‘must feel under intense pressure now whenever she’s going to be seen in public’ after her major surgery in January.
Despite calls for the original image to be published, Kensington Palace insisted it would not be reissuing the unedited photograph of Kate and her children.
And Ms Bond cautioned against ‘bullying her into putting out all the images’, adding that the 42-year-old mother-of-three would be feeling ‘absolutely miserable’.
She said that Kate’s Mother’s Day was ‘obviously ruined by this row’ and she ‘didn’t look that happy’ when photographed yesterday in a car with William.
Ms Bond told GB News: ‘We are in danger of bullying a lady who is trying to recover from a very serious operation. I think of how she must be feeling this morning. Absolutely miserable, I think.
‘Her Mother’s Day was obviously ruined by this row. She was photographed yesterday in the car with William. From what we can see, she didn’t look that happy, she must feel under intense pressure now whenever she’s going to be seen in public.
‘The pressure has doubled and redoubled. I think she’s in a fragile mental and physical state. And we should lay off her.’
