Kate Middleton's return to royal duties is weeks away, and Kensington Palace is planning her transition back to the spotlight after months of hiding away.
The Princess of Wales took a step back from her public platform to recover from abdominal surgery, and during her recuperation period, rumors began to swirl about her health and marriage.
"The teams are working round the clock to devise the Princess of Wales’s back-to-work plan after weeks of immense pressure," a source told an outlet. "They all know that the world will be watching after weeks of heightened speculation and often outlandish commentary on social media."
Kate returned to Instagram on Mother's Day with an "edited" photo, which resulted in journalists questioning the palace's integrity.
OK! previously reported expert Christopher Andersen compared Kate's public apology for the mishap to her late mother-in-law, Princess Diana.
"Altering a photo is not something that Diana would ever have considered doing because she knew full well that she would be crucified if she did," Andersentold an outlet. "Diana was a loner."
"Kate is the consummate team player," the biographer added. "The palace wouldn't have dared ask Diana to apologize for anything — they knew that the answer would be a resounding 'no.'"
Although Diana wasn't a royal during the age of social media, Andersen believes she would've had a different response than Kate.
"Kate, on the other hand, is more compliant, more eager to please," Andersen claimed. "Among senior royals, she's always been more of a ‘go along to get along’ type. One can't help but feel she is being taken advantage of at a time when it has become increasingly clear that she is coping with a health matter that is more serious than we've been led to believe."
The mom-of-three shared on X, formerly known as Twitter, that she "occasionally experiments with editing."
"My guess is Kate volunteered to issue a mea culpa statement, and her less-than-gallant handlers were happy to have her take the fall," Andersen said about the scandal. "They probably thought that Kate's apology would serve the dual purpose of explaining what was going on with that photograph and simultaneously reassuring people that she's very much alive and well and aware of the public's concern."
"Obviously, they didn't think it through," he added.
Before marrying Prince William, Kate studied art history at St Andrews, and the Prince of Wales recently called his wife "arty.'' Due to Kate's affinity for humanities, Andersen thinks the princess was honest about doctoring the image.
"Kate is a talented curator and photographer. I'm inclined to believe her when she says she retouched the photograph," Andersen explained. "The mistake of thinking she could pass it off to the press was entirely hers."
"Compounding that error in judgment is her half-explanation, which raises more questions than it answers," he continued. “What, exactly, did she retouch and why? Once again, the palace has failed Kate and the royal family by just releasing little provocative tidbits of information and leaving the public hanging."
Sources spoke to The Mirror.