THE VANISHING OF KATE

Mystery surrounds the Princess of Wales since her undisclosed abdominal surgery, with wild and wacky rumours doing the rounds as the royals teeter on the brink of all-out crisis

- NICOLA WHITFIELD

FOR a few brief moments it had people oohing and aahing : here at last was Kate, smiling and lovely, surrounded by her kids in a picture taken at home by her husband to mark Mother’s Day in the UK.

It was the proof everyone needed that she was indeed on the mend, hard evidence to silence the conspiracy theorists.

But the illusion has well and truly been shattered – and if the palace had hoped the pic would put an end to speculation about the Princess of Wales, they were sorely mistaken. Within hours several photo agencies had pulled the image from their sites over concerns it had been manipulated.

There were several inconsistencies: the length of George’s forearms; Louis’ strange fingers and the pattern on his jersey not matching up; the absence of Kate’s wedding ring and her misaligned zip; Charlotte’s blurred skirt and a partially missing sleeve.

Associated Press was the first to issue a “kill notification” – industry-speak for retracting an image – and the other agencies soon followed suit.

“At closer inspection it appears that the source has manipulated the image,” Associated Press said. “No replacement photo will be sent.”

“Mandatory kill,” AFP said. “Due to an editorial issue this photo taken by the Prince of Wales has been withdrawn and may no longer be used. Please delete it from all your online services, stop using it and delete it from your servers.”

This photo released by the Prince and Princess of Wales, taken by William, sparked speculation it was not real (from left): Kate's zip appears misaligned, her rings are missing, Princess Charlotte's sleeve is partially missing and Prince Louis' fingers just go wonky.