Actress and entrepreneur Blake Lively said she was “scared” by joking about Kate Middleton’s “Photoshop fail” – and the apology comes after the Princess of Wales confirmed on Friday that she had undergone cancer treatment.
“I’m sure no one cares today but I feel like I have to admit it,” Lively said in a message she shared Friday on her Instagram account. “I wrote a ridiculous post about the craziness of ‘Photoshop fails’, and oh my god, that post shamed me today. I’m sorry. Sending love and well wishes to everyone always.”
On March 15, Lively posted a comedically edited photo to promote her Betty Buzz drink line, showing her sitting poolside with a can of Betty Booze with an enlarged thumb and a lemon floating above her head. In a since-deleted Instagram post, Lively wrote: “I’m so excited to share this new photo I just took today to announce the 4 new @bettybuzz and @bettybooze products! Now you know why I was MIA.”
That was a reference to visual distortions in a photo released by the royal family on March 10, showing Middleton and her three children, which prompted the Associated Press and other news agencies to pull the photo from their services. “Like many amateur photographers, I sometimes experiment with editing,” Middleton later admitted. The controversy led to feverish speculation about Middleton’s prolonged absence from the public eye. Amid conspiracy theories about the princess’s whereabouts, celebrities including Jimmy Kimmel and Jamie Lee Curtis called on people to respect Middleton’s privacy.
In a video statement released on Friday, Middleton said her cancer diagnosis was discovered after abdominal surgery, and she is now in the “early stages” of preventive chemotherapy. “It’s been a very difficult couple of months for our whole family, but I had a wonderful medical team who took great care of me, which I’m very grateful for,” Middleton said in the video.
Here is Lively’s apology that she posted on Instagram Stories: