Please cast your mind back to March 10, 2024, the fated day Kate Middleton dropped a group photo herself and her kids and was immediately called out for absolutely bizarre levels of Photoshop. Quick reminder of the photo in question:

Like, an Associated Press spokesperson claimed it showed “an inconsistency in the alignment of Princess Charlotte’s left hand,” the Telegraph reported that “a tree in the background appeared to have leaves in mid-March,” and royal reporter Chris Ship noted that the pattern on Prince Louis’s sweater was askew. It was a whole thing.

Basically, this photo was such a mess that multiple agencies issued “kill notifications,” the Palace entered “crisis talks,” and Kate had to release a rare statement explaining herself. Ahem: “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.”

So, what was going on behind the scenes during this chaotic moment? Royal author Robert Hardman tells People, “There was a real sense then that they felt bruised by it. It was treated like some great fraud.”

Meanwhile, Queen Elizabeth II’s former press secretary Ailsa Anderson notes that Kate was secretly undergoing cancer treatment at the time, which added even more strain: “It was like being on a roller coaster for them…undergoing chemotherapy and trying to protect your children. It was like being in the middle of a tornado and not knowing when it was going to calm down.”

Oh, and reminder that a Palace aide at the time said, “Anything written or said about the Princess of Wales at that point was at fever pitch and front page news. It also spoke to the nervousness of the photography industry around AI and their future. Even so, the reaction seemed extremely disproportionate. As far as the Princess was concerned...this had just been a mother deciding to share a personal picture of her and her children on Mother’s Day to bring some joy to the nation.”

Here’s a full timeline if you wanna relive the chaos: