The Danish royal household celebrated Crown Prince Christian turning 20 by releasing a series of official birthday portraits – but they have sparked unexpected controversy.
Seven new dashing photographs of Queen Mary and King Frederik X’s eldest son were shared to both the Danish royal family‘s Instagram account and media centre.
But in the days following the release, Danish media and royal watchers have been abuzz with claims that the pictures appear heavily edited and retouched.
This, many claimed, may violate the Danish royal family’s own stated photography policy, which is a commitment to provide the public with images that are not manipulated, outside of ‘minor lighting adjustments’.
Daily Mail reached out to the Danish royal family’s communication department for comment on the Photoshop rumours – but they remained tight-lipped.
‘As you may have seen in the Danish media, this is not a matter on which we provide further comments,’ The Royal House’s Lead Press Officer responded.
Nevertheless, photographers and other image experts have weighed in on what they believe are tell-tale photoshopping signs.
Several experts have agreed that these portraits show traits of ‘manipulation’ such as ‘lack of texture, and nuance in the face’.
On October 15, a series of portraits of Crown Prince Christian were shared to both the Danish royal family’s Instagram account and media centre
The series of seven portraits were released in celebration of the royal’s 20th birthday
Photography expert Petra Kleis observed that she believed the Prince’s face in some of the pictures was a giveaway.
‘The skin looks like marzipan because it has been blurred,’ Petra told Danish paper Politiken.
Morten Boeriis, an associate professor at the University of Southern Denmark and an expert in digital image manipulation, told the newspaper that his view was that the ‘images have undergone extensive processing’.
Furthermore, Morten added that the editing had not been done in ‘a particularly elegant way’.
He noted that the royal family had potentially painted itself into a corner by creating a photo policy that prevents their photos from being edited.
Copenhagen photographer Bax Lindhardt also believes the editing went beyond what he regarded as an acceptable ‘limit’, telling B.T he ‘couldn’t understand why’.
‘In my opinion he should be left alone,’ he said.
‘This completely smooth edit ends up looking funny. The skin becomes the same all over the face. It ends up looking like a smooth mask with two eyes and some lips on it.’
The Danish royal family often release a series of official portraits – like these new pictures of Prince Christian – to mark a birthday milestone
Royal fans have gone wild for the new pictures, commenting online that the Prince looks very ‘handsome’ in the new portraits
The allegations about the new portraits certainly didn’t dampen the enthusiasm from royal fans.
‘Such a handsome man, imagine when he becomes king one day!’ read one gushing reply on the royal family’s Instagram post.
‘[T]he prince has the same kind eyes and warm smile as his mother,’ observed another royal fan.
‘Very handsome young man,’ agreed another commenter.
However, even among the replies from staunch royalists was a question mark around the authenticity of the latest portraits.
One reply read: ‘Who took the pictures? They look processed. No need – Christian is beautiful au naturel.’
It’s not the first time that photoshop claims have plagued King Frederik and Queen Mary since their January 2024 ascension.
In April 2024, the royal couple’s first official portrait of the Australian-born queen standing alongside the King was questioned over whether the photo had been manipulated.
Eagle-eyed fans claimed the royal portrait released in April 2024 exhibited signs of editing, including two images being combined into one (see points 1 & 3) and also noted Queen Mary’s hand placement over King Frederik (see point 2)
This photograph released in January 2024 for Prince Vincent and Princess Josephine’s 13th birthday was also questioned over the twins’ similarity to the below image
The twins’ poses in their birthday portrait looked very similar to those in this photograph – leading fans to speculate if the image had been edited together
At the time, some claimed the couple appeared to have taken single portraits, which were then edited together into one portrait.
‘Was this photoshopped? I mean it looks like they were photographed separately then put together?’ read part of one online reply at the time.
‘Beautiful photo, but another digitally enhanced royal photo,’ claimed another woman.
A few months prior to this, royal watchers also questioned a photo put out by the Danish palace of Prince Vincent and Princess Josephine for their 13th birthday.
The birthday portrait of the twins together was released on January 8.
But it quickly drew claims of being edited from another royal family group photo. The reason? The teenage twins has the exact same pose and expression in both pictures.
The latest picture editing claims about Crown Prince Christian are also reminiscent of another royal family’s Photoshop snafu.
On Mother’s Day in 2024, the British royal family made international headlines after a picture of Princess Kate and her children was called out for obvious editing and manipulation.
The image of the Princess of Wales and her children was said to have been taken by Prince William.
Eventually, it was called out for containing 16 ‘errors’ – and became the first official portrait of the royal house to be recalled by picture agencies.
Eventually, a subsequent online statement from Kate saw her take complete ownership for the botched editing, apologising for any ‘confusion’ it caused.
Although the dust has settled on this particular scandal, incidents like these, coupled with the widespread use of picture editing, have led to a growing mistrust of royal photos being truly unedited.
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