Grant Harrold, who served as King Charles's butler from 2004 to 2011, has issued a statement after posting an AI-generated image of the Prince and Princess of Wales on Instagram. The photo, which he captioned as being from 2004, was quickly flagged by followers as likely fake due to blurry details and awkward angles.
In his statement, Harrold said he did not take or own the image, but shared it because it reminded him of the couple's early relationship. 'I genuinely mistook this to be an authentic image,' he wrote, adding that 'AI can be hard to detect.'
The incident comes amid heightened scrutiny of royal images following a separate editing controversy involving Kate. A royal source told the Daily Mail that 'questions' were being raised about the photo behind the scenes.
William and Kate's romance became public in 2004, the same year Harrold joined the royal household. The couple married in 2011 and have three children.
