As Kate Middleton continues to stay out of the spotlight, Blake Lively appeared to poke fun at the Princess of Wales’ photo editing debacle and joked that she, too, has “been MIA.”
The Upper East Side’s queen bee looks to be weighing in on the controversy surrounding the Princess of Wales.
Blake Lively appeared to troll Kate Middleton after her Mother’s Day U.K. photo was pulled from news agencies March 10 for being “manipulated.”
“I’m so excited to share this new photo I just took today,” the Gossip Girl star captioned an Instagram photo of her head blatantly Photoshopped on a distorted woman’s body lounging by a pool, with one of her Betty Buzz drinks in hand. Seemingly poking fun at rumors over Kate’s whereabouts, Blake added in the March 15 post, “Now you know why I’ve been MIA.”
The 36-year-old also announced she’s been working on four new products for her beverage brand, including two mocktails.
Meanwhile, the Betty Buzz account chimed in under the pic, “Haters will say it’s photoshop.”
Fans praised Blake as a marketing “mastermind” for appearing to do a spoof on the conspiracy theories surrounding Kate’s private recovery from abdominal surgery, which were fueled when the royal confessed to editing her family portrait.
“Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing,” Kate said in a statement posted by Kensington Palace March 11. “I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused. I hope everyone celebrating had a very happy Mother’s Day. C.”
While the 42-year-old has not made any formal public appearances all year, she was spotted by paparazzi leaving Windsor Castle on March 11 in a car with husband Prince William, who was headed to a Commonwealth Day service.
“It wasn’t until I checked on the back of the camera,” the photographer Jim Bennett told People, “to make sure I had a frame of Prince William that I realized there was someone sitting next to him. It turned out to be Catherine!”