14 March, 2024

Delivered in association with Sean Coughlan Welcome to Royal Watch. A cosy Mother’s Day picture of the Princess of Wales and her children was dropped on social media. Who could have predicted the outcome? There was a huge dispute over its authenticity and then an admission by Catherine that it had been digitally edited. Awkward to say the least. Plus, Prince William still had to push ahead with his Earthshot Prize events. Meanwhile in Hollywood, where they would never think of airbrushing their image, an Oscar nominee discovered a king for an ancestor. And Queen Camilla continued her campaigning on women’s issues, with some historic stones to tell her story. Perfect picture of confusion It gets stranger and stranger. Who could have predicted the latest twist in royal news involving the Princess of Wales? Instead of stopping the rumours, a family photograph showing Catherine and her children has ended up creating even more confusion, after her “minor adjustments” produced a media meltdown. Was this a breach of trust? Was something being hidden by the manipulation of this photo? The image that Catherine has admitted to digitally altering. Credit: Instagram account princeandprincessofwales It seemed as though everyone on social media had become an expert in photo technology and had their own crazy theory. Never had so few pixels been analysed by so many. But with Kensington Palace not releasing the original photograph, we still don’t really know any more about what might have been changed. Was there an opportunity to explain more? Have there been too many unknowns in recent months that have fed the conspiracy theories? Of course there’s nothing new about adjusting royal images. Historian Anna Whitelock points out that painters had to portray a “mask of youth” for Elizabeth I. “Images were always curated and controlled,” says Prof Whitelock. But this latest media storm will add to the pressure on Catherine when she does reappear in public. Maybe there will be further pictures or videos released, but it would have to be in a way that’s going to ensure authenticity. It already seemed tough to some that she took all the blame. Because what’s also emerged from Catherine’s absence is how much the royals need her. She’s popular with the public, a star turn for the front pages, a dash of glamour in an ageing family. After this week’s chaos, her next return will have to be picture perfect. • Can royals move on from Kate photo row? • Kate’s apology over editing picture Green capital It would have been a big week for Prince William’s Earthshot environmental prize, were it not overshadowed by matters at home. The Prince of Wales held events promoting the next stage of the project, which will connect more investors and philanthropists to people with climate-friendly schemes. It’s meant to scale up good ideas. Prince William attends a celebration of The Earthshot Prize Launchpad. The online platform will help those working to solve climate problems secure funding. Credit: Getty One of the previous Earthshot winners, Notpla, provides food packaging that uses seaweed rather than plastic, and that’s now being expanded to major sports venues across the UK. “This is urgent. We are in a critical decade now,” the prince said during a speech in London. • Prince William on the impact of Earthshot Is this an Oscar I see before me? This week was Oscars week and as well as the usual red carpet dramas, there was a tale of regal lineage. It was another example of how, if you can trace your family history back far enough, you’re quite likely to find a royal ancestor. This time it was movie star Paul Giamatti, nominated for his role in The Holdovers, who found he was descended from the Scottish King Malcolm III. On his podcast, Paul Giamatti said that he loves all things Scottish, partly because of his Scottish connection. Credit: Getty Appropriately for a thespian, this was the king who defeated Macbeth in Shakespeare’s play. Giamatti shared his history on a recent episode of his podcast, recorded a couple of months before the Oscars, in which he also relayed his lifelong desire to wear a kilt and how much he enjoyed haggis. Genealogists will say this kind of connection always sounds surprising but in fact is not unusual at all, because such medieval royal families will have millions of living descendants. If you’re among the lucky number you’ll probably also have a load of paupers and peasants in the family tree, but people tend to focus on their glitzier forebears. • Paul Giamatti: My royal ancestor may have killed Macbeth Queen rocks the palace Queen Camilla put some dramatic political history on show since our last edition, along with a modern message. At an International Women’s Day event she produced two big stones which had been thrown at Buckingham Palace during a Suffragette protest in 1914, as women demanded the right to vote. The Queen is president of the Women Of The World Foundation, which supports gender equality. Credit: Getty Two protesters had slipped past sentries at the palace and once inside had broken a couple of panes of glass before they were caught. But the palace officials didn’t want to prosecute and the women were released. It makes you think about what would happen if there was such an incident now. Queen Mary, wife of King George V and grandmother to Queen Elizabeth II, had kept the stones. One of them had the message attached: “Constitutional methods being ignored drive us to window smashing." The stones in question. Credit: PA Queen Camilla said she wouldn’t condone such destructive acts, but observed that the stones “represented hope to the women who threw them - hope that, in the future, they would not be victims of their history, nor of the social and economic forces that were ranged against gender equality”. The speech didn’t get much coverage because of the saga of Kate’s photo, but for a speech in the palace, it was surprisingly radical and direct.