The photographer who clicked a photo of Kate Middleton sitting beside Prince William in a car has blasted claims that the photo was doctored. “We don’t change our photos in Photoshop other than adjusting the light levels if necessary,” Jim Bennett told New York Post.

‘Car shots are unpredictable’

Bennett explained that a news outlet hired him and another person to snap William while he headed to Westminster Abbey for a royal event. “The cars left Windsor Castle and I photographed them a short distance away on Datchet High Street — outside No. 39, to be precise!” he said. “Car shots are unpredictable at the best of times and with some reflection on the glass, it can be difficult.”

“As it happened, it wasn’t until I checked on the back of the camera to make sure I had a frame of Prince William that I realized there was someone sitting next to him. It turned out to be Catherine!” Bennett added.

After the photo surfaced, there were conspiracy theories that Kate’s silhouette was edited and placed in the photo. Bennett also revealed that the picture was not released by the royal family, as some people claimed. It was taken by a professional photographer and later syndicated in the US by GoffPhotos, a photo agency.

Some Internet sleuths claimed Kate’s photo was actually a shot of her at a 2016 ceremony which was edited into this photo. Some even noticed inconsistencies with the pattern of bricks in the photo. However, Bennett provided a Datchet High Street address, which appeared to debunk such theories.

This comes after Kate’s Mother’s Day photo controversy, where sleuths and metadata found that a photo released by Kensington Palace had been manipulated. Kate later apologised for the Photoshop error, writing on social media, “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.”