‘This isn’t a mistake Meg would make’: Harry and Meghan wade into Kate's Mother's Day photo mess

12 March 2024, 13:23 | Updated: 12 March 2024, 18:11

Sources close to Harry and Meghan have spoken out on the controversy surrounding Princess Kate's Mother's Day picture.

Kate apologised after admitting editing the family photograph to try and make it "the best it could be" before it's release on Sunday.

It is understood she edited the picture twice and is "very sad" that the picture has sparked a worldwide furore.

But now, a source told Page Six that Harry and Meghan would “have been annihilated” if they had handed out secretly Photoshopped images of themselves and their family.

They added: "The same rules do not apply to both couples.

“This isn’t a mistake that Meghan would ever make … she has a keen eye and freakish attention to detail.”

Read More: Royals ‘rally around Kate’ as ‘Photogate’ played down by insiders as ‘bump in the road, not an earthquake’

Read More: Kate's Mother's Day picture taken in 40 minute family window and edited twice 'so her children looked good'

Read More: Kate wanted to ‘come clean immediately’ over Mother’s Day photo edit as she thought ‘honesty was best policy’

Royal author Omid Scobie, who is close to Meghan and Harry, said: “It’s becoming increasingly difficult for the public to believe a word (and now photo) they share”.

Today, it emerged William took the picture of his smiling family on a £2,900 Canon camera before Kate made the edits ahead of Sunday's public release.

Aides had spent weeks planning the Instagram release for Mother's Day in a bid to put a stop to the vicious social media speculation about the Princesses health. Comments that have been posted since her surgery in January have deeply upset and angered the couple.

But the plan backfired after six of the world's top picture agencies including the Press Association and Reuters pulled the photo from their wires and libraries amid concern that the "source has manipulated the image".

This prompted Kate to take to X -formerly Twitter - to admit she "edited" the image and apologise for "any confusion" the image caused.

Kate is said to have felt that honesty was "the best policy" and wanted to "own up" to the Photoshop blunder.

Read More: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle pay surprise visit to family of teacher killed in Texas school shooting

Insiders told The Times that the Princess felt "awful" about the picture and had been trying to make it the "best it could be", adding that she was "thinking of her own children when editing the picture, hoping that they looked good for their own sakes".

The row overshadowed yesterday's Coronation Day service at Westminster Abbey, which was being led by Queen Camilla for the first time, accompanied by Prince William, in the King's absence as he undergoes cancer treatment.

His Majesty recorded a video message for the first time instead.