The release of the first official image of the Princess of Wales since her surgery was meant to mark Mother’s Day, and calm the fevered speculation over her health.

Instead, the image of her with her three children caused chaos when news agencies withdrew the picture over concerns it had been digitally altered. The princess has since apologised for "any confusion" she might have caused.

Rather than the photo killing off the media gossip, it’s ended with the media killing off the photo.

What did Catherine say? The princess posted a brief apology on social media for what had happened to the picture. "Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing," she said. Royal sources described her changes as "minor adjustments".

It’s a terrible look. It’s often said that the monarchy has to be seen to be believed, which means that they need to be visible to the public. But this photo controversy shows it’s even more important that we are able to believe what we see of them. Trust is central to the relationship with the royals. When they manipulate an image, will the public feel manipulated too? And we still don’t know what was changed, with no sight of the original picture. We don’t know, for instance, if this was a composite image from a series of pictures. And we’ve got the unusual spectacle of a royal handout picture being so brutally taken down by photo agencies.

Control vs transparency. There’s an inescapable tension between the right to privacy for the royals and the expectations from the public for openness. And this is played out in their relationship with the media. On a number of recent occasions, Prince William and Catherine have put out content direct to social media. It gives them control of how it looks and what’s included, but isn’t that really just advertising? With this latest row over the Mother’s Day photo, was that a private personal moment or a public statement? If it’s the latter, maybe it needed someone else behind the camera?

Kelvin Bruce/Jim Bennett

On Monday afternoon, the Princess of Wales was seen in public with William, as the pair left Windsor in a car

Do we have unfair expectations? We want the royals to be like us - taking a relaxed family picture for Mother’s Day - but at the same time we want them to be completely different and special. Is Catherine caught somewhere in that contradiction? The Princess of Wales must have been on more front pages in recent years than anyone else in the country, including political leaders. When she’s recovering from major surgery, is it a grown-up thing to expect her to appear in public and look flawless? Despite her medical problems, she literally has to show her face. And having been the focus of relentless speculation about how she looks, it’s Catherine who ends up in the firing line for playing with the image being released.

What happens next? It will add even more pressure to when the Princess of Wales does appear in public, which isn’t expected until after Easter. But maybe there’s a bigger question about re-setting the royal relationship in the non-deferent, modern era. How much information should they share? The stage-managed spontaneity of that photo was all about sending a message of reassurance and authenticity. But what, without any artificial enhancements, does that really look like?