The royal photographer and friend of the couple is refuting a report that he doctored a 2021 photo.
The photographer who snapped Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's 2021 pregnancy announcement is speaking out, after an outlet claimed he doctored that photo.
Misan Harriman, the royal photographer and friend of the couple, took to Instagram to share the original photo -- taken in the back garden of the couple's mansion in Montecito, California, by Harriman, who used an iPad while he was in the United Kingdom and they were in California. It had already been public record that Harriman shot the portrait remotely.
Harriman posted the photo and offered his explanation, saying that The Daily Mail misreported a 2022 interview with BBC Radio 3, in which the host "asked leading questions" that led to the mixup and suggestion that the pic was doctored in some shape or form.
In an effort to set the record straight, Harriman posted the original photo, which is in color. He also posted a screenshot of the metadata. Harriman's caption noted that "the original Jpeg without the black and White grade," meaning the original photo was in color and the only edit he made was turning the photo into a black and white portrait, which is the version Harry and Meghan used to announce her second pregnancy.
"Unfortunately, there's been an article on The Daily Mail saying that I have admitted to doctoring the pregnancy announcement portrait I took of Harry and Meghan," the photographer said in video explaining the so-called controversy surrounding the 2021 pic in the wake of Kate Middleton's Photoshop scandal. "Apparently, I was switching out trees and meadows and I admitted to this on an episode of a podcast called Private Passions. This is crazy."
During the 2022 interview with the BBC, the host suggested the photo was edited, saying, "They weren't actually under a willow tree, were they? They were lying outside in a meadow, weren't they?" Harriman responded, "Yeah, they were lost in their love, at home, in their garden, comfortable, celebrating new joy, new life, the fortitude of hoping for light in life after such a loss that they went through with a miscarriage. So, it really was a particularly joyous image to celebrate life itself."
The line of questioning and his answer left Harriman perplexed as to how anyone could interpret that as confirmation that the photo was doctored.
"How that exchange could amount to me admitting to doctoring an image is insidious and really dangerous journalism," Harriman explained in his Instagram video addressing the Daily Mail's reporting. "Any mention of meadows and willow trees came out of the person doing the interview, not my mouth. I did my best to ignore it and focus on what I wanted to talk about. So, to see an article saying, as a fact, that I did what I did not do is extraordinary to me. And then to try and merge it with this current news cycle of what's happening, it's tragic to see."
In reference to "this current news cycle," Harriman is referring to Middleton admitting she edited the recent Mother's Day portrait with her children. The portrait has since been pulled by a number of news agencies that distributed the pic, including the Associated Press and Reuters.
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