Princess Diana Photoshopped Into Princess Charlotte's Christening Picture With Kate Middleton: Is It Cute or Creepy?

Wisconsin woman wants to make digital manipulation "go viral" and succeeds

By Zach Johnson Aug 20, 2015 2:18 PMTags
Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton, Princess Charlotte of Cambridge, Princess Diana, Photoshopped ImageFacebook

Princess Charlotte will never get to meet Princess Diana.

Thanks to an American woman named Lori Eastwood, though, it appears as if the princess' grandmother attended her recent christening not only in spirit, but also in the flesh. (Diana, of course, tragically died in car crash in Paris in 1997.) Eastwood selected a picture of Diana bowing to Mother Teresa two months before her death in 1997. With the use of Photoshop, she added Diana's image to another photo showing Charlotte in the arms of Kate Middleton. The mother-daughter picture, meanwhile, was taken July 5 at St. Mary Magdalene Church in Sandringham.

Another American woman, Wisconsin-based Mary Kohnke, shared the picture on Facebook, writing, "What a great job at photoshopping...Let's make this go viral!"

The photo manipulation has been shared over 250,000 times.

Some people on Facebook described the blended images as "kinda creepy" and "morbid." Others, though, called it "beautiful" and "awesome." The majority of people were touched, and one royal admirer wrote, "Oh how I wish this were real!"

"I think it's a little strange," Hoda Kotb said on NBC's Today Thursday. Co-host Kathie Lee Gifford said it would have been better if Diana looked "more ethereal" or looked "a little more like she's an angel and it's a little visitation from heaven."

KGC-375/STAR MAX/IPx, Mike Segar

In reality, Charlotte is still very much connected to her late grandmother. The 3-month-old royal shares her name, and she was christened in the same church chosen by the Spencer family for Diana's christening in 1961. The two are linked in other ways, too. For example, Prince William and his wife selected one of Diana's favorite photographers, Mario Testino, to take Charlotte's christening portraits.

After Charlotte was born, royal astrologer Debbie Frank told E! News that William and Kate are "very stable" and value security. "They're very affectionate," she said, "and this particular Taurus [Charlotte] adds a little extra delight to the arts." She added, "Perhaps we could see a People's Princess once again like Diana was. She's going to be one with a lot of charisma and a lot of personal magnetism."

Frank said she has high hopes for Prince George's sister. "She's really going to connect with people and put herself out there, shall we say," Frank said, adding that Charlotte will develop a "huge connection" to her great-grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, as she gets a little older. "They're going to feel like two peas in a pod."

For more of Frank's predictions, watch her interview with E! News:

Watch: Find Out How the Stars Align for Princess Charlotte

(E! and NBC are both members of the NBCUniversal family.)