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Magazine admits to doctoring Kate Middleton cover

By Joanna Douglas | Shine from Yahoo! Canada – Fri, 12 Aug, 2011 4:34 PM EDT

Kate Middleton's waist was slimmed down on the cover of Grazia magazine. Photos by Getty Images; Grazia.

Last April, nearly 750 million people tuned in to watch Prince William and Kate Middleton become the Duke and and Duchess of Cambridge, and— as much as folks seemed genuinely ecstatic about the union—the biggest story of the day quickly became the bride’s immaculate white dress. The Alexander McQueen gown accentuated Middleton's small waist, which many speculated had been slimmed down for her big day.

However, when a royal wedding photo of the bride appeared on the May 9th collectors' issue of Grazia magazine, it looked as if Kate's waist wasn't only slim, it had nearly disappeared.

[See also: How designer kept Kate's dress a secret]

The cover quickly drew public outrage and a complaint about the inaccuracy of the photo was registered with Britain’s Press Complaints Commission. After an investigation (we're imagining they just looked at the photos!), the commission ruled that the magazine had in fact doctored the image. According to MSNBC, Grazia has confirmed the allegations.

A spokesperson at the magazine explained that the re-touching SNAFU all started after the Grazia staff were unable to locate a solo shot of Middleton in her wedding dress. Magazine editors had trouble finding an image of the Duchess where she wasn’t linked arm-in-arm with William. (You’ll notice her arm is reaching up in the photo on the left). So they decided to create something that wasn’t there. “This involved mirroring one of the duchess’s arms and an inadvertent result of the change was the slimming of her waist,” the Complaints Commission reported.

[See also: Kate's $400,000 dress on display]

Grazia made an apologetic statement, saying, “we did not purposely make any alterations to the Duchess of Cambridge’s image to make her appear slimmer, and we are sorry if this process gave that impression.” Though the whole scandal is actually rather silly, in a world where magazines are constantly depicting real women as thinner, lighter-skinned, and more wrinkle-free than they actually are, we can't help but appreciate Grazia's owning up to its error.

In other royal wedding scandals, TLC’s new “Crazy About Pippa” documentary claims that Kate Middleton’s sister Pippa padded her now-famous backside to fill out her bridesmaid dress. Yes, Pippa’s butt has Twitter and Facebook appreciation pages, but “experts” told TLC, that her behind has never looked as impressive as it did at the royal wedding. Really? Perhaps it’s time we kindly step back, give the Middleton sisters a little privacy, and focus on our own body parts.

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184 comments

Krayg • 9 months ago
Magazines have been doctoring model photos for years. Why are people surprised at this?

After reading the article and their explaination, I can sorta understand how the "error" happened, but come on... I've been fixing up photos for years, I find it difficult to believe that any prestigeous magazine would leave a cover shot to an inexperienced Photoshop user. When copying a section of an image to do an overlap, you simply reduce the opacity so you can see through it for positioning. In the Photoshop world, this is *not* rocket science.
Sol Invictus • 9 months ago
the first casualty in advertising is truth
MZT • 9 months ago
"Magazine editors had trouble finding an image of the Duchess where she wasn’t linked arm-in-arm with William"...gee, how unusual, as it was their wedding day and by all accounts he had a pretty big role to play too.
- -Jonno- 9 months ago
  Yes, but if they wanted a solo shot for the cover, then they wouldn't want half of Prince William's shoulder or something, it wouln't look professional. Not that their solution was any more professional...
Me • 9 months ago
London is burning and they are posting somthing about Kate Middleton cover, what a life !! mediaaaa
O • 9 months ago
they will get sued for sure.
NotQuiet! • 9 months ago
What for? So you can push abnormal body expectations onto young impressionable girls? As if we already don't have enough to deal with in terms of body image. I am sure that Kate Middleton would not appreciate knowing that she is being used to contribute to this issue. NO ONE IN THIS WORLD IS PERFECT! So stop trying to make people on the cover of your magazine perfect!
SS • 9 months ago
Like she isn't thin enough of is
Balashoo • 9 months ago
this is why young girls have unrealistic body images. Theres a difference between being healthy and anorexic. Yes, people shouldnt be overweight but they shouldnt be sticks either. Models and photoshopping in magazines are partly to blame for the rise of bulimia and anorexia. Shame on them for thinking its ok to make someone look like a stick.
A Yahoo! User • 9 months ago
I am so absolutely SICK and TIRED of all the brushing magazines are doing, not just on the royals but on every one they put in their hideous pages-these are STUNNING women, even with a minor flaw we'd still buy the stupid things LEAVE THEM ALONE!!! print more normal HUMAN images PLEASE!!!
Savy36 • 9 months ago
kate does not need any form of ALTERING!!!!!!
- sunshine 9 months ago
  actually, I think that Kate needs to put on a few pounds. She might have lost weight for the wedding. She looked pretty thin on her visit to Canada and the US.
Mrjro2 • 9 months ago
SICK WORLD!!!! Boycott the magazine for its deception and lack of moral content...
FILLER • 9 months ago
leave them alone!
Muffy • 9 months ago
Well, if people didn't A: Care about Royalty and by association the Middleton sisters. B: Care about weddings and how much money they cost and what an OUTRAGE that is in such a economy based society to use up so much money simply to declare LOVE of all things. C: Care about skinny girls and what repercussions they can throw back into the faces of whoever caused these poor irregular women. Then maybe they would all shut the hell up and as the article stated "Worry about their own body parts."
A Yahoo! User • 9 months ago
Good grief. What are they trying to do, turn Kate into an anorexic. Leave her alone and let her get on with being a princess. Someone is always looking someone else's flaws. They ought to do some shoots on the cameraman. He's probably 30 lbs. overweight.
A Yahoo! User • 9 months ago
I wonder why Diana became bulemic?????? Leave the poor woman alone!!!!!!!!!
D • 9 months ago
i dont see why they would do that. she is a beatiful slim woman and doesnt deserve to look like shes annoreic. its unfair how society developed the stereotype that every has to be thin to be beautiful. kate is a BEAUTIFUL woman and deserves her lovely shape
- C. Menstein 9 months ago
  They explain it. Learn to read, Hitler.
MammaGert • 9 months ago
If they make her waist any thinner, she will disappear!
Spitfire • 9 months ago
Just another slap at today's young women...don't be real...fake is better....
- MZT 9 months ago
  "Just another slap at today's young women"...by other women, not men, as hetero men do not write these types of articles.
Renji Abarai • 9 months ago
why would they do that? for crying out loud, she's thin enough!
Mrjro2 • 9 months ago
This is a big reason our children become depressed and start starving themselves to death. This magazine should be ashamed!!! It's not like Kate is a chubby woman either... What has happened to our idea of bettering ourselves to tolerate and accept humans of different colours, shapes, rhetoric, language, etc????