The Kate Middleton Photoshop debacle keeps getting weirder

Look, we're an art and design site. It's not our place to get involved with conspiracy theories concerning the whereabouts of royal folk. Unless it involves some dodgy Photoshop. Then we're very much on board.

The Princess of Wales has been the subject of growing speculation and rumours over her health and location over the last few months, since she reportedly underwent abdominal surgery two months ago. Presumably in an attempt to quell the online noise, the photo was released via the Princess's X account on Mothers' Day – but eagle-eyed viewers quickly spotted several examples of egregious editing. And now the Princess herself has claimed responsibility (if only she'd taken a look at our guide to the best Photoshop tutorials).

From the misalignment to Princess Charlotte's right hand to the pattern of Prince George's jumper not lining up, it looks as though some slapdash use of the Clone tool may have taken place. These might look like minor mistakes, but they provoked three press agencies to take the somewhat unprecedented step of 'killing' the image, removing it from circulation.

While conspiracy theorists revelled in the errors, there were a few hours in which it looked like there might be an explanation – several social media users pointed out that this could be a result of the Google Pixel 8's 'Best Take' feature, which blends group shots to create a composite image. But then Kate Middleton stepped in to claim that she had, in fact, "experimented with editing".

"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." Middleton announced. So now we're left to wonder just how much of a Photoshop enthusiast the Princess of Wales might be. What's her favourite plugin? Or keyboard shortcut? Is she a fan of Generative Fill? We need to know.

In short, the whole thing keeps getting odder. An explanation was so close, but the palace's comms team seems insistent on giving ammunition to the conspiracy theorists. Still, Kate can take solace from the fact that this isn't the only Photoshop nightmare we've seen in recent months – remember those Ant Man 3 posters?