Kate Middleton celebrates UK Mother’s Day 1 year after photo editing controversy

Kate Middleton celebrated Mother’s Day in the UK by sharing a post about Mother Nature one year after her photo editing controversy.

The Princess of Wales took to Instagram Sunday to share a clip highlighting Mother Nature, including snippets of herself touching a tree and walking barefoot through a field.

“Over the past year, nature has been our sanctuary,” she captioned the post. “This Mother’s Day, let us celebrate Mother Nature and recognize how our bond with the natural world can help not only nurture our inner selves, but remind us too of the role we play within the rich tapestry of life. C.”

Middleton, 43, didn’t include her and Prince Williams’ three children, Prince George, 11, Princess Charlotte, 9, and Prince Louis, 6, in the tribute post.

Last year, Middleton’s Mother’s Day post stirred up controversy after she shared a sweet family photo with her three kids.

At the time, she had spoken out for the first time since undergoing abdominal surgery in January 2024 and amid conspiracy theories around her whereabouts.

“Thank you for your kind wishes and continued support over the last two months,” Middleton captioned the photo last year.

“Wishing everyone a Happy Mother’s Day.”

Within a few hours, photo agencies gave the snap a “kill notice” and flagged that it had been altered after noticing a part of Charlotte’s arm was missing.

“The same altered photo was reviewed in another post by fact-checkers,” an Instagram notice read.

“There may be small differences. Independent fact-checkers say the photo or image has been edited in a way that could mislead people, but not because it was shown out of context.”

Middleton, however, immediately spoke out, admitting that she was the one behind the Photoshop failure.

“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,” she wrote on X at the time. “I hope everyone celebrating had a very happy Mother’s Day. C.”

That same month, Middleton revealed that she was diagnosed with cancer and had been secretly undergoing treatment.

In January 2025, the royal shared she was in remission after slowly returning to the spotlight.