Photographer shares unedited version of Harry and Meghan's pregnancy photo after editing accusations
Royal photographer Misan Harriman is clearing the air following allegations that he doctored Prince Harry and the former Meghan Markle's pregnancy photo in 2021.
Harriman, who is also a friend of the couple, shared the original photo to Instagram March 13, as well as a video addressing claims that he edited the image. The photographer shared the original colorized shot of Harry and a pregnant Meghan lounging in the grass near a tree. In the next slide, Harriman posted a screenshot of the metadata, which showed the photo was taken on an Apple iPad.
“The original Jpeg without the black and White grade, I expect a full apology and retraction from @dailymail @telegraph,” he wrote in the caption.
On Valentine's Day in February 2021, Harry and Meghan shared a black-and-white version of the photo to announce that they were expecting their second child, Princess Lilibet.
In the video Harriman posted earlier in the day on March 13, he accused the Daily Mail of misreporting an interview done with Michael Berkeley on the BBC’s “Private Passions” podcast in 2022.
“Unfortunately, there’s been an article on the Daily Mail, saying that I have admitted to doctoring the pregnancy announcement portrait I took of Harry and Meghan,” Harriman said. “Apparently, I was switching out trees and meadows. This is crazy.”
He played a clip from the podcast and afterward said that any interpretation that would suggest he admitted to manipulating the image is “insidious and very dangerous.”
“To see an article saying, as fact, that I did what I did not do is extraordinary to me. And then to try to merge it with this current news cycle of what’s happening is tragic to see,” he said.
Harriman added, “It was a virtual shoot that I shot on an iPad, an 8-mega pixel iPad. The only thing that was changed was a black-and-white color grade. That’s it.”
Talking about the “current news cycle,” the photographer was referring to an edited photo Catherine, Princess of Wales, shared on social media on the United Kingdom's Mother’s Day on March 10.
The former Kate Middleton posted a royal family portrait, which featured the princess posing with her three children: Prince George, 10, Princess Charlotte, 8, and Prince Louis, 5.
“Thank you for your kind wishes and continued support over the last two months,” the caption read, referring to recovering from her unspecified abdominal surgery in January. “Wishing everyone a Happy Mother’s Day.”
According to a statement from Kensington Palace, the photo was taken by Prince William in Windsor last week.
Thereafter, multiple news agencies issued notices advising other media outlets to not use the image because it appeared to have been “manipulated,” NBC News reported.
The Associated Press, Reuters, Getty Images and Agence France-Presse issued “kill notices,” an advisory to remove or not use a photo, according to messages on their imaging websites and email notifications from some of the agencies, per NBC News.
The next day on March 11, Kate released an apology statement, via the Kensington Palace X account, acknowledging that she had edited the Mother's Day 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,” she wrote.
Following the controversy, another image was released March 11 of Kate and William leaving Windsor in a Range Rover. At the time, a royal spokesperson confirmed that the two were attending a “private appointment.”
After this image also prompted speculation around manipulation, Goff Photos, the agency that took the picture, said in a statement on March 12 that the “images of the Prince and Princess of Wales in the back of the Range Rover have been cropped and lightened” but that “nothing has been doctored!”
This article was originally published on TODAY.com
