Kate Middleton 'shaken' by 'cruel' Prince William rumours: 'Very sad'

Kate Middleton is reportedly "shaken" over the unsubstantiated rumours that her marriage to Prince William is under strain due to allegations he cheated on her with their longtime friend Rose Hanbury.

The rumours kickstarted once again after Kate and William released their now-viral Mother's Day portrait, which showed the Princess of Wales without her wedding ring.

The photo was the first official photo released of Kate after she underwent abdominal surgery in January, with the Princess barely seen in public since Christmas last year.

The portrait was promptly 'killed' by AP, who issued a statement saying, "At closer inspection, it appears that the source has manipulated the image."

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Kate then took to her Instagram to share a story explaining the mishap writing, "Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing. I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion with the family photograph we shared yesterday caused.

"I hope everyone celebrating had a very happy Mother's Day," she added, signing off simply with, "C."

Kate is said to be "very sad" that the photo, taken by William, has led to countless theories about the state of her marriage and her well-being as she recovers from her surgery.

Arthur Edwards, The Sun's royal photographer, has revealed that he believed Kate would have found the rumours "upsetting".

A friend of the couple told The Sunday Times, "It’s not that they didn’t think there would be lots of speculation and interest, but they had confidence that people would give them the space they asked for, which they did for about a month."

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"If you want to call out the mistake, it was Kate not telling her team that she’d done it [edited the photo]. But she came out and said sorry," another said. "The photo was a misstep: even with something as innocent as that, you should disclose altering it. But in the history of image cropping and photo altering to tell a story, a lot of the reaction from picture agencies was hypocritical."

Another source has shared that the couple may be more open about Kate's recovery when interacting with members of the public during engagements in the future.

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