Woman posts Photoshopped picture on Instagram; woman is vilified in the comments section. In this modern, FaceTuned media landscape, this could have referred to any number of Kardashian-Jenners, but in this instance, the woman in question is a member of the royal family. During an already tumultuous time for The Firm, with conspiracy theories swirling around the Princess of Wales—who is on hiatus from public duties to recover from an operation—the picture editing disaster was a PR blow to an already wounded institution.
Eight days after the Mother’s Day post debacle, which saw Kate admit to “occasionally experimenting with editing”—and weeks into X’s #katemiddletonmissing hysteria—the world has had its first full body (!) sighting of the Princess since Christmas. Reader (but of course you know this), the internet once again lost its mind. She was buying groceries.
The image of Kate and William picking up supplies at the picturesque Windsor Farm Shop has been analyzed by body language experts already. The Prince and Princess seemed to be in good spirits basking in the spring sunshine, said one outlet, putting paid to rumours that they might have separated. Kate looked healthy, remarked another, feigning concern for her convalescence after the scheduled abdominal surgery that the Palace specifically stated would put her out of action until April. She looked, as per the Mothering Sunday image that some news agencies said threatened their integrity, the same. No Brazilian butt lift. Zero obvious signs of having grown out her bangs—or worse, being in the devastating no man’s land between fringe and exposed forehead. And unquestionably not heavily pregnant with twins.
Her look suggested that it’s business as usual, thank you very much, for the Waleses. In classic downtime Kate mode (she had reportedly been watching the kids play sports before ducking into the Windsor equivalent of Daylesford), the Princess wore black leggings, a zip-up hoodie, trainers, and sports socks pulled up. Aside from the uncharacteristic absence of this low-top fan’s signature trainer socks, there was no shock reveal, no new look, no beauty transformation. She was simply a woman popping into a posh grocery store perhaps for a cheese straw after cheering from the pitch sidelines for hours. She might well have been purchasing treats for the kids, who couldn’t come to the farm shop for fear of being embroiled further in the media frenzy.