The UK edition of Grazia magazine has admitted it slimmed the waist of Kate Middleton by digitally altering a cover image of her on her wedding day.

In its 9 May edition the weekly fashion title published a photograph of what appeared to be an impossibly thin Duchess of Cambridge standing alone in her bridal gown.

The image has reignited the debate over the use of digital manipulation in women's magazines.

After investigating a complaint to the press watchdog that the image had been manipulated, the Bauer Media-owned magazine has conceded that it doctored the original image of William and Kate leaving Westminster cathedral.

''The magazine explained how the image had been altered to remove the arm of Prince William so that the duchess could be featured on the cover alone," The Press Complaints Commission said.

"This involved mirroring one of the duchess's arms and an inadvertent result of the change was the slimming of her waist.''

Grazia said it had wanted a "great image" of the duchess on her own but "all the photographs had the duke in too."

"So we asked our reproduction house to remove him from the picture (common practice among glossy magazines)," Grazia said.

"This would have left the duchess with only one arm, so they copied over her arm to complete the picture.

''[Grazia] would like to reassure all our readers that we did not purposely make any alterations to the Duchess of Cambridge's image to make her appear slimmer, and we are sorry if this process gave that impression''.

The duchess is not the first to have her image electronically altered by a glossy magazine.

Kate Winslet, renowned for celebrating her curvy figure, has fallen foul of the airbrush on more than one occasion.

In 2003 the editor of GQ admitted digitally lengthening and slimming her legs for a cover shoot in which she posed in a basque and high heels.

The actress protested that she ''was pretty proud of how my legs actually looked in the real picture''.

Last month L'Oreal was forced to withdraw ads for the Eraser foundation featuring Julia Roberts and model Christy Turlington after admitting the images had been digitally retouched.

Four years earlier advertising watchdogs criticised the French firm for a mascara advert in which Penelope Cruz wore false eyelashes.

The Guardian

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