Princess Beatrice and Zara Tindall Have a Blast at Horse Race as Kate Middleton Photo Controversy Continues
People
Princess Beatrice and Zara Tindall Have a Blast at Horse Race as Kate Middleton Photo Controversy Continues
Mark Borkowski, a London-based public relations and crisis communications expert, tells PEOPLE that the palace didn’t calm concerns by sharing a new image with the public — “in fact, it’s made it worse.”
“Now some people are asking if it is all generated by AI or is it a Photoshop of a photo taken. It’s not something you’d want the royal brand to be aligned with,” he says.
A palace insider downplayed the PR crisis, telling PEOPLE exclusively that the situation is a “bump in the road, it’s not an earthquake.”
“[Kate] has apologized and graciously so,” the insider says. “She has done something that 99% of us do — and we don’t have the scrutiny that they do.”
“Think of the level of scrutiny of pictures of her, as people pore over them,” the insider continues. “You’re always on display and always got to be perfect.”