Hold on, is this magazine cover where THAT Kate Middleton picture actually came from?

Wait a minute, did someone just work out that Sunday’s Kate Middleton picture might have been photoshopped using an old cover of Vogue she appeared on nearly eight years ago??

Ever since Kate Middleton has been missing from the public eye, conspiracy theories have been running rife. And in an attempt to quash these theories, the Royal family shared a picture of William, Kate and their three children on Mother’s Day. But this only ended in disaster with major photo agencies calling for the picture to be killed after fears it was edited. Then yesterday, Kate confirmed this, saying in a statement:  “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.”

The editing of the photo has resulted in wild public speculation and has only created more chaos, with people calling for the original, unedited photo to be released and even more people donning tinfoil hats as they work out the next possible theory of her whereabouts. And one of these theories is that Kate’s face could actually be taken from a cover of Vogue she appeared on in May 2016.

Ruby Naldrett who works in social for The Daily Mirror, a typical Royalist paper, posted the theory on Twitter. She shared a picture of Kate’s magazine cover alongside a photo of the two images blurred together and a video demonstrating this alongside the caption: “My analysis of the Kate Middleton photo saga is that they took her face from the Vogue cover she did years ago and edited it in.”

The magazine cover and this week’s photo seem to completely blur into one another, leading lots of people to believe that they’re actually the same picture edited together and that the Mother’s Day picture is not new at all.

The post has had over 37.8 million views with some people shocked at the possible revelation and agreeing in the replies but with others completely refuting the claims, pointing out “Wow, the same person has the same face…”

Another person, Paul Lomax said: “Holy shit, I just did this myself and it’s a pixel-perfect fit. Genuinely it’s 100 per cent that this is the Vogue cover photo photoshopped in.”

He shared another two pictures of the photos blurred together, adding: ” To be clear I’m not saying she’s dead or incapacitated. But somebody has definitely replaced Kate’s face in this photo, there can be zero doubt. Maybe she didn’t look her best and fancied wiping eight years off the clock (the Vogue cover was 2016)… Her hobby is de-ageing herself.”

This comes after many people noticed a number of dodgy editing errors in the initial photo including problems with their hands, Kate’s missing wedding ring and the leaves in the background not matching the current season.

For more like this Kate Middleton Vogue theory, and for all the latest film news, memes and gossip, like Pop Culture Shrine on Facebook.

Related stories recommended by this writer:

• Kate has admitted she edited it, so here are all the dodgy editing errors in *that* photo

• Edited photos and international scandal: A full timeline of the weird Kate Middleton picture

• All the best ‘occasionally experiment with editing’ memes after Kate Middleton’s apology

Featured image before edits via Shutterstock and X.