Kate Middleton scandal: leading photo agency announces Kensington Palace no longer 'trusted source'

Kensington Palace is "absolutely not" a "trusted source" anymore following Princess Kate Middleton's edited Instagram photo, according to a leading photo agency.

"Like with anything, when you're let down by a source, the bar is raised," Phil Chetwynd, global news director of AFP, explained on an episode of the BBC's "The Media Show."

Middleton has remained out of the public eye since Dec. 25. Buckingham Palace later revealed that the Princess of Wales had been admitted to the hospital for a planned abdominal surgery on Jan. 17, and since then she has only been spotted once prior to the photo being released.

On Mother's Day in the U.K., Middleton shared a photo featuring her three kids with Prince William: Prince George, Prince Louis and Princess Charlotte. The picture quickly became news as it was likely intended to quell speculation over the princess's whereabouts.

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Earlier this month, a spokesperson for Kensington Palace told Fox News Digital: "Kensington Palace made it clear in January the timelines of the Princess’ recovery, and we’d only be providing significant updates. The guidance in January stands that the Princess would be recuperating at home in Windsor."

The spokesperson emphasized Middleton was "doing well."

However, Middleton's photo only fueled speculation about her health and whereabouts after it came to light that the image had been altered.

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Middleton Mother's Day issues spotted by internet sleuths:

• A portion of Charlotte’s left sleeve was missing.
• Charlotte’s hair ends abruptly on her right shoulder.
• Louis’ thumb appeared blurred on his right hand. His little finger ended abruptly on his left hand.
• Louis’ sweater had a mismatched pattern on his right arm.
• Middleton’s jacket zipper does not align correctly.
• Middleton's hair appeared blurred on the right side.
• The edge of Charlotte’s boot heel was distorted.

The Princess of Wales apologized one day later and admitted that the image shared online had been edited.

"Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing," she wrote on social media. "I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused."

"We don't have anything to add," the palace confirmed to Fox News Digital when asked for comments about the digitally altered photo.

Following Middleton's admission, Instagram put an "altered photo" label on the post for the account's 15.2 million followers.

"Independent fact-checkers say the photo or image has been edited in a way that could mislead people, but not because it was shown out of context," the warning read.

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Prior to Middleton's Photoshop error, AFP's Chetwynd used Kensington Palace as a "trusted source."

"So, in the case of the Palace or Kensington Palace, these are … people that we work with all the time," he explained on "The Media Show."

"They would [be a trusted source], because we've worked with them repeatedly and because usually it would be our own photographer doing stories with them," Chetwynd added. "And occasionally there were handout photos of key moments such as this, which we would be used to dealing with. So, there's a level of trust between us and them at that point."

Fox News Digital has reached out to Kensington Palace for comment.

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Fox News Digital's Tracy Wright contributed to this report.