Prince Louis’ birthday photo

[PrettyFlyforaMaiTai]

I was worried that Catherine might not release a birthday photo of Louis this year what with what her diagnosis and the mothers’ day photo fiasco. But she has released an image on the Prince & Princess of Wales instagram page.

Happy 6th birthday Louis! Isn’t he a mini Michael Middleton?

@MummyJ12 "They shouldn’t be wasting time on listening to trolls then should they"

I don't think they did, did they?

It’s a sweet photo and he looks SO much like Kate as a baby/child.

Yes. They had huge pressure put on them by the Sussex Squad.
I do suspect the agencies will come to regret their knee-jerk reaction of bowing to the pile on though as they are now losing out financially.

I wonder if they would make the same decision in retrospect.

I doubt it. That they bought into the 'Where Is Kate?' nuts conspiracy narrative(s) even to a tiny degree (while not overtly admitting to it) is very embarrassing for them.

I think they may have learned not the listen to the deranged online chatter quite so much in future.

It's the 'SS' who are diminished by this tawdry episode the most; but others don't come out of it squeaky clean either.

If only they'd maintained their reputation as as a news agency whilst hacking phones.

Well played William and Catherine.

@MummyJ12 They reviewed the picture. Which is their job. Obviously better if they'd done it before publication.

If I were Kate, I'd have been tempted to photoshop in a T Rex chasing him round the garden, while Superman flies in from the left hand corner.

Lovely picture.

If only they were always so noble, principled and conscientious...

By comparison, an image of Harry published around the world (and rightly ridiculed).

Princess Catherine and her children looked like themselves at least, and not like they were impersonating a waxwork.

The response was a massive overreaction generated by the absence of Catherine as a result of her surgery and illness.

@MummyJ12 "Yes. They had huge pressure put on them by the Sussex Squad."
Seriously? They must have worked incredibly fast- the picture was pulled between hours!

@Grrrpredictivetex I don't think the photo agencies hack phones, do they? Happy to be proved wrong.

Seriously @CurlewKate they are seriously unhinged and work 24/7.

@Uricon2 Good plan. And if it was one shot photoshopped if necessary it would have been fine.

The point is, @MummyJ12, that they didn't have to in this case. As soon as it was realised the picture was a composite it had to go.

Someone has already posted the agencies’ opinion that it wasn’t a composite photo above. Where was it stated that it was a composite, please?

@CurlewKate It wasn’t a composite. (See upthread from the agencies themselves). Please enlighten us on the evidence that you seem to have that proves otherwise and that it is a composite…..

The Mothers Day photo was released as usual, with usual amounts of "best shot" type editing.

It's been no problem in the past.

KP could not possibly have known that the press agencies, instead of treating it like all the other regularly released family pics, would decide it was "news" and apply those standards this time round.

Why "news" - because of the shitty "where's Kate" utter vileness that leaked from social media to other media.
Lessons learned, I hope.

But KP couldn’t speak to the photo agencies own decisions.

The only parties that could do so were the photo agencies themselves. And it was, quite literally, their business. Their terms and conditions, their decisions, their issued kill notices.

Also, their decision to all issue it before checking it met their standards. So their negligence. They didn’t feel the need to explain that either, did they?

As I've seen it described the "Meghan With Harry the Hairdresser" photo always makes me smile

No sign of any evidence proving that the Mother’s Day photo was a composite yet…..

Don’t hold your breath Mummy…

You know it wasn’t a composite so stop peddling rubbish. Not sure why you are dragging all this up again it wasn’t so long ago that you felt guilty about joining in the pile on on Catherine after her cancer diagnosis, you seem to be over it now I see.

The great British public would have loved that!

Crocodile tears one suspects.

Oh of course! But forgiving and being kind to oneself for one's terrible behaviour was paramount, and trumped actual feelings of guilt.