Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's 'Royal Mouthpiece' Takes a Dig at Kate Middleton's Photo Scandal

British journalist and author of the book Endgame, Omid Scobie, has spoken about Prince Harry while taking a dig at the Princess of Wales' latest Mother's Day photo scandal. Scobie obliquely alluded to the statement made by the Duke of Sussex in the Netflix docuseries Harry and Meghan that representatives from the palace 'were happy to lie to protect my brother.' The reported confidant of the Sussexes called out Kensington Palace on X, saying, "It's fair to say that most photos released by the offices of public figures have been retouched in some way, so as an isolated incident this is just an unfortunate error. But with the Palace's long history of lying, covering up, and even issuing statements on behalf of family members without their permission (cc: Prince Harry), it's becoming increasingly difficult for the public to believe a word (and now photo) they share." He added. "Gaining that back at this point is an almost impossible task."

As per Express UK, author Scobie is renowned for writing the highly charged and contentious book Endgame, which brought attention to the conflicts between Prince Harry and Markle as well as the larger royal family. He also criticized the palace comms team by tweeting: "Wonder what it would be like if they had a good comms team."

As per The UK Mirror, fans took liberal potshots at the palace comms team under Scobie's tweet; one fan joked, "Would love to be a fly on the wall," while a second person blasted them by saying, "No one talented wants to work there." A third fan insisted, "Omid, they need a good Photoshop department," while a fourth fan said, "I know the Buckingham Palace comms team is having a good laugh." A picture of Kate Middleton with her children, Prince George, 10, Princess Charlotte, 8, and Prince Louis, 5, that Kensington Palace released on March 10 on the occasion of Mother's Day was removed by organizations like the Associated Press, Reuters, and Agence France-Presse.

According to a news wire statement to NBC News, the image had been extensively altered: "The Associated Press initially published the photo, which was issued by Kensington Palace. The AP later retracted the image because, at closer inspection, it appears that the source had manipulated the image in a way that did not meet AP's photo standards. The photo shows an inconsistency in the alignment of Princess Charlotte's left hand." 

While Getty Images stated, "For editorial reasons, please remove the following image(s) from your system and do not use in any manner," AFP highlighted an 'editorial issue' with the photo in the notice on its website. In fact, the picture bureau at Getty Images said it 'identified a problematic image' that the palace had given and took it off from the website 'under our editorial policy.' In a statement, AFP claimed that it had 'come to light' that the image 'had been altered' before sending the required kill notice.