Kate is pictured leaving Windsor Castle in car with William as she heads for ... trends now

The Princess of Wales has been pictured alongside Prince William leaving Windsor Castle today.

The Prince of Wales was seen heading to Westminster Abbey for the annual Commonwealth Day service this afternoon with his wife beside him. 

But MailOnline understands that Kate will not be attending the annual event and was heading to a private appointment instead.

It came as Kensington Palace is under increasing pressure to release the original Mother's Day photograph after the Princess of Wales admitted today that she had edited the family picture.

PR experts have described the fiasco as a 'massive own goal' and urged Palace officials to release the unedited picture in a bid to regain the public's trust. 

The Palace had initially faced calls to reveal the truth behind the photo after the world's top picture agencies - including the Press Association - 'killed' the image over claims it had been digitally manipulated.

Kate this morning admitted that she had edited the photograph and issued a personal apology 'for any confusion' it had caused. Sky News' analysis of the photo's metadata found the image was taken with a Canon camera and was saved in Adobe Photoshop twice on an Apple Mac. Other experts suggested she may have used an AI tool.

The photo of the mother-of-three beaming with Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis was the first official picture released of the princess since she underwent 'planned abdominal surgery' in January. 

Kate, in a statement on social media, said: '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' 

While the princess publicly took the blame for altering the photo, Kensington Palace said it would not be reissuing the unedited photograph of Kate and her children.

PR expert Mark Borkowski said: 'It's plausible she's at home playing with the computer and using an AI tool, but if they're really going to regain any sort of trust they should release the unedited photo, it can't be that bad if they just made a few tweaks. 

'I find they have risen to the challenge, provided the statement as an explanation - the question is with all the conspiracy theories running around, is whether people believe it and I'm not sure that they will.'

Mr Borkowski said the Mother's Day photo had exposed a public relations problem for the monarchy: 'That's the issue, there doesn't seem to be that much joined up strategic thinking at the heart of the royal family at the moment, which leads to these problems where it's a very difficult organisation to manage in terms of PR.'

He added: 'It's a nightmare, even the softer stories of Edward turning 60 this week haven't really resonated at all because no one's interested in them, they're interested in the stars they're not interested in the supporting cast and that is a problem at the moment.

'They are under pressure, massively under pressure, this is a massive own goal.'

Royal sources stressed that this was 'an amateur, family photograph taken by the Prince of Wales'. It's understood that it was taken in Windsor last week.

They said the couple wanted to offer an 'informal' picture of the family together for Mother's Day and the princess made 'minor adjustments', as she has shared in her statement on social media. 

An aide added: 'The Wales family spent Mother's Day together and had a wonderful day.'

Sky News said an examination of the photo's metadata revealed it was saved in Adobe Photoshop twice on an Apple Mac on Friday and Saturday and the picture was taken on a Canon 5D mark IV, which retails at £2,929.99 and used a Canon 50mm lens, priced at £1,629.99. 

The first save was made at 9.54pm on Friday night and the second was at 9.39am on Saturday morning. it's not clear if the two saves were on the same device. The Palace has not offered any further clarification about the edits.

The controversy is set to overshadow the Commonwealth Day service, one of the key royal events of the year.

Heir to the throne William and the Queen will gather with the royal family in Westminster Abbey today in the absence of the King, who is continuing treatment for cancer during what has been a challenging start to 2024 for the Windsors.

Graham Smith of the anti-monarchy group Republic said: 'Kate's statement answers no questions. We can all see the photo has been edited.

'The question is why? Why haven't they released the original photo?

'A statement parsed via the press office which says nothing and explains nothing shows a general disregard for the public...'

Earlier, Kate's uncle Gary Goldsmith defended the Waleses and claimed they would not have been responsible for altering the image.

The Celebrity Big Brother evictee said: 'Obviously the family wouldn't be the ones to do any touch-ups, so if that's gone through some filter before it's gone out to the broader world, but they wouldn't be doing photoshopping themselves.'

He told Good Morning Britain: 'The smiles on faces said it all for me, I thought it was beautiful.' Mr Goldsmith added: 'And this whole 'sleevegate' thing, just leave it alone.'

Royal author Omid Scobie, seen as a cheerleader for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, accused the Palace of having a 'long history of lying', and said gaining back public trust was now 'an almost impossible task'.

Scobie wrote on X that if it was an isolated incident, it was an 'unfortunate error'.

He added: 'But with the Palace's long history of lying, covering up, and even issuing statements on behalf of family members without their permission (cc: Prince Harry), it's becoming increasingly difficult for the public to believe a word (and now photo) they share.

'Gaining that back at this point is an almost impossible task.'

The princess is known to be a keen photographer and revealed in 2021 that she takes so many

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