Prince William gushes over Kate Middleton art skills after photo editing debacle

He’s sticking to their story. 

As the saga around Kate Middleton becomes more bizarre, Prince William is gushing that she’s “arty” enough to experiment with Photoshop. 

On Thursday, William, 41, visited the new charity facility West Youth Zone. While he was there, he decorated cookies with a group of young participants. When the kids complimented on his frosting design, William responded, “It’s really not impressive work. My wife is the arty one, my children are artier than I am.”

Middleton, 42, has barely been seen in public since it was announced that she was having an unspecified planned abdominal surgery in January.

Wild conspiracy theories about her whereabouts and the reason for her long absence have abounded on social media.

Prince William has ignored questions about his wife’s condition and her recovery from the vague medical issue. 

Circumstances got more odd when Kensington Palace released a Mother’s Day photo of Middleton smiling with their children — Prince George, 10, Princess Charlotte, 8, and Prince Louis, 5. 

The photo was subsequently recalled by news agencies, which claimed the photo was “manipulated.”

A “kill notification” released by AP read, “At closer inspection, it appears that the source has manipulated the image.” 

Middleton herself took to X (formerly Twitter) on Monday to explain why the portrait was “manipulated.” 

“Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing. I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused,” she wrote.

She ended by saying, “I hope everyone celebrating had a very happy Mother’s Day” — which was Sunday in the UK — and ending casually with “C,” for her first name, Catherine. 

Many on social media mocked the idea that the Princess of Wales likes to “experiment” with photo editing. 

Kensington Palace has refused to release the original unedited photo.

The snapshot was meant to put to bed the speculation about Middleton’s long absence from the public eye, but it backfired.

“I’m not generally into conspiracy theories but this Kate Middleton photo has got me feeling like a flat earther,” one royal watcher commented. 

Comedian John Oliver noted about the photo debacle, “I was out. I thought, ‘Let’s all just ignore this. We’ve moved on,’ until the Photoshop thing,” Oliver, 46, said during an appearance on “Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen” this week.

“That feels, like, you’re almost handling it in an oppressive way at this point,” he said, about how the royal family has handled Middleton’s absence from the public eye. 

Middleton was last spotted with husband Prince William leaving Windsor Castle on March 11 in the backseat of a car. 

However, even that photo was speculated to be digitally altered.