Kensington Palace posts birthday photo of Prince Louis, taken by Catherine

Britain’s Prince William and his wife, Catherine, thanked the public for their messages sent to mark the sixth birthday of their youngest son, Louis, on Tuesday.

The couple, the Prince and Princess of Wales, also issued a picture of Louis on social media to mark the occasion, showing a close-up image of the beaming young prince.

It’s the first image by the Princess of Wales the palace has distributed since news organizations withdrew a photo edited by Catherine over concerns about digital manipulation. British media reported that the image, which showed the beaming prince in a plaid shirt, had not been edited. 

“Happy 6th Birthday, Prince Louis! Thank you for all the kind wishes today,” their office Kensington Palace said on X, formerly Twitter, as well as Instagram.

The picture was taken by Kate in Windsor, where the family live. Louis is the youngest of their three children, with George, aged 10, and Charlotte due to celebrate her ninth birthday next month.

Mother’s Day photo withdrawn by photo agencies

Kensington Palace has for some years released photographs taken by Kate, a keen amateur photographer, to mark birthdays and other family occasions.

However, two images released by Kensington Palace were later found to have been digitally altered — the now-infamous photo of Catherine surrounded by her smiling children on Mother’s Day; and a 2022 image of Queen Elizabeth with her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. The former was killed by many photo agencies just hours after they published it. 

By this afternoon, of three of the major photo agencies — Reuters, The Canadian/Associated Press, and Getty — it appeared only The Associated Press picked up the photo of Louis.

“Getty Images is undertaking a review of handout images and in accordance with its editorial policy is placing an editor’s note on images where the source has suggested they could be digitally enhanced,” a Getty Images spokesperson told CBC News last month.

The spokesperson clarified that the statement only applies to handouts from the palace. 

A Reuters spokesperson told CBC News last month that the news agency is also updating its procedures related to vetting images from Kensington Palace “following a second altered photograph being found.”

Last month, the princess revealed she was having preventive chemotherapy after tests carried out in the wake of major abdominal surgery in January revealed cancer had been present.

Heir to the throne William has only just returned to official duties since that announcement, and Kate herself will only return to the public spotlight when her medical team say she is well enough to do so.