Magazine admits to doctoring Kate Middleton cover

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


Related: Kate Middleton's $400,000 wedding dress


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.

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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