White House wishes Kate Middleton a ‘speedy recovery’ from surgery and says Biden administration ‘doesn’t alter photos’ in initial reactions to Mother’s Day photo saga

The White House said in its first comments on the Kate Middleton Mother’s Day celebration that it is “not altering any photos” of President Joe Biden or other officials.

Karine Jean-Pierre, the administration’s top spokesperson, was asked whether the White House ever digitally altered photos of officials before releasing them to the public.

“Are you comparing us to what is happening in Britain?” she asked before adding: “What does the monarchy have anything to do with us? No, that’s not something we do here.’

The release of the photo by Kensington Palace and the subsequent apology from the Princess of Wales caused an uproar in Britain, trended on social media around the world and spawned a slew of conspiracy theories.

Jean-Pierre did say that the White House offered Kate a “speedy recovery” from her abdominal surgery.

‘We offer a speedy recovery and I will leave it at that. I have nothing else to share,” Jean-Pierre said.

The Princess of Wales admitted on Monday that she edited the portrait that Sunday, Mother’s Day in Britain, was released by Kensington Palace, apologizing “for any confusion” the family photo may have caused.

In the first official image released since Kate’s ‘planned abdominal surgery’ on January 16, MailOnline identified 16 separate edits, including issues with the princess’s jeans zipper and right hand – amid claims the photo had been digitally altered.

Reports suggest Prince William took Kate’s Mother’s Day photo in just 40 minutes on Friday before the princess edited it twice in Photoshop to ‘make the most of it’.

Pictured: The Princess of Wales with her children, Prince Louis, Prince George and Princess Charlotte, taken in Windsor in what has become known as a Photoshop fail

The Prince of Wales took the photo of his smiling family with a £2,900 Canon camera, before Kate made edits to improve the photo before it was published on Instagram on Sunday.

Kensington Palace aides are said to have been planning for weeks to release a photo of the Princess of Wales to quell vicious speculation on social media about the nature of Kate’s condition since her operation in January, which deeply upset the couple and made angry.

Instead, the rare royal blunder resulted in a new public explosion of conspiracy theories.

Six of the world’s top photo agencies – including Associated Press, Reuters and Getty – sensationally pulled the photo from their phone lines and libraries, amid concerns that the “source manipulated the image.”

Amid the commotion, the princess later posted an extraordinary mea culpa on Twitter and Instagram, admitting that she “edited” the image – adding that she “occasionally experimented” as an “amateur photographer” and apologized for “any confusion ‘ that caused the image.

Kate reportedly felt that honesty was “the best policy” and wanted to “confess” the Photoshop blunder. The princess felt “terrible” about the photo and had tried to “make the best of it”, insiders told The Times – adding that she “thought of her own children when editing the photo, hoping they would look good’. their own good’.

The princess publicly took the blame for the fury, writing on Monday: ‘Like many amateur photographers, I occasionally experiment with editing.

“I wanted to apologize for any confusion the family photo we shared yesterday caused.

‘I hope everyone who celebrated had a happy Mother’s Day. C.’

Royal sources said the princess had made ‘minor adjustments’ to the photo, which she and her husband had hoped would be a nice ‘casual’ photo to share on a special day.

‘This was an amateur family photo taken by the Princess of Wales. Their Royal Highnesses wanted to provide an informal photo of the family together for Mother’s Day,” the source said.

“The Princess has made minor adjustments, as she shared in her statement on social media: the Wales family spent Mother’s Day together and had a wonderful day.”

Despite calls to publish the original, Kensington Palace said it would not reissue the unedited photo of Kate and her children, which in itself sparked further debate.

Kate posted the apology on the Prince and Princess of Wales’ Instagram account

The White House said it does not digitally alter the photos it distributes, such as one from last month when President Biden met with Yulia Navalnaya and Dasha Navalnaya, the wife and daughter of slain Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

On Monday evening, the palace faced mounting pressure over the debacle, with claims it damaged public confidence.

Palace aides didn’t spot any sign of Photoshop, but it’s not believed the edits were notified to the Princess team before it became public.

However, questions have been raised about whether the image was too good to be true. A red flag could be the fact that the glowing family portrait was taken in such a short time on Friday.

Due to the Wales family’s busy schedules, the photo had to be taken while everyone was back home from various activities. A day later, Kate allegedly sent the photo to her team.

It is not known whether anyone on her team could see that the photo had been edited with Photoshop, but alarm bells may have gone off when courtiers discovered that William had taken the photo.

Without editing, it would have been quite an achievement for William to capture such a captivating photo with all members of the family roaring with laughter at the same time.

A plan was put in place to release the photo and a message from Kate herself at 9am on Sunday, but what soon followed was 24 hours of intense scrutiny as the palace faced questions from all angles about why the family photo appeared to be digitally manipulated .

Meanwhile, Kate was seen in the backseat of a car with her husband as he left Windsor to travel to London for two public engagements.

DailyMail.com understands she was on her way for a ‘private appointment’.