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Sources close to exiled royals Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, and his wife, former American actress Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, said the couple would "have been annihilated" if they had found themselves in a similar fiasco to the one facing Kate Middleton, Princess of Wales, this week.
Middleton issued an apology after posting a doctored Mother's Day photo of herself and her three children on the social media accounts she shares with her husband for Mother's Day in the United Kingdom, which served as her first public statement since undergoing a mysterious surgery and shying away from the public eye months.
“If Harry and Meghan had ever encountered the same issue they would have been annihilated," sources close to the exiled couple told Page Six. “The same rules do not apply to both couples. This isn’t a mistake that Meghan would ever make … she has a keen eye and freakish attention to detail.”
Royal author Christopher Andersen also claimed that Prince Harry is "concerned" about Middleton, whom he once had a "very close friendship with," though their relationship had soured amid his criticism of the Royal Family in his memoir, 'Spare' and six-part Netflix docuseries with Markle.
"There was once a very close friendship between Harry and Kate," Andersen said via Express. "I'm sure he's concerned about her but I know that she wants nothing to do with him. She's got her own problems now and she feels betrayed."
Middleton was spotted leaving Windsor Castle with her husband, Prince William, on Monday (March 11), hours after issuing an apology for the doctored photo.
"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. I hope everyone celebrating had a very happy Mother’s Day. C," Middleton wrote on the couple's shared X account.
The photo, which showed Middleton, 42, with her sons George, 10, and Louis, 5, and daughter Charlotte, 8, was withdrawn by the Associated Press, Reuters, Getty and AFP after it was initially shared on the couple's social media accounts for Mother's Day in the United Kingdom Sunday (March 10).
"Professional photographer here. Look closely at Princess Charlotte’s wrist. This is what happens when you composite layers in Photoshop. I’m not speculating on why the photo was edited like this, but it’s weird," portrait photographer Martin Bamford wrote on his X account.
The reported withdrawal came months after the royals shared a edited Christmas card in which Prince Louis was missing a middle finger, which Kensington Palace refused to address. The royal couple frequently opts to take their own photos to mark holidays and special occasions, rather than follow prior royal customs of hiring a professional photographer.
Middleton was reported to have spent two weeks in the London Clinic hospital in January following what was described as "planned abdominal surgery" and recover privately until after Easter (March 31), Kensington Palace had previously announced. The reason for the princess' surgery was, however, unknown and her time out of the public eye led to speculation and conspiracy theories.
Middleton was initially spotted publicly in a paparazzi photo shared on March 4 in which she was traveling in a car with her mother, Carole, near Windsor Castle. Gary Goldsmith, Middleton's uncle who had previously appeared on the reality television show 'Celebrity Big Brother,' said his niece was receiving "the best care in the world" while addressing the situation via Time.com.
Kate's reported surgical procedure preceded her father-in law King Charles III's cancer diagnosis, which led to him postponing public engagements while undergoing treatment, in February.