Blake Lively Fans Think Her Latest Post is ‘Mocking’ Kate Middleton’s Photoshop Scandal—and They’re ‘Disappointed’

Many Blake Lively fans think her latest Instagram joke was a rare miss.

On March 16, the 36-year-old actor famous for trolling her husband, Ryan Reynolds, on the social media app appeared to find a new target—and her followers were not here for it. In a purposefully photoshopped ad for her mocktail brand Betty Buzz, an image of Lively was superimposed over a pool background with her hands enlarged and a lemon floating in the air. “I’m so excited to share this new photo I just took today to announce our 4 new @bettybuzz & @bettybooze products,” Lively wrote in the caption. “Now you know why I’ve been MIA.”

Betty Buzz replied to the post, writing, “Haters will say it’s photoshop.”

This comes days after a portrait of Kate Middleton and her children were removed from multiple photo agencies over “manipulation” concerns, which the Princess of Wales later took the blame for on X.com. “Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing,” she wrote on March 11. “I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused. I hope everyone celebrating had a very happy Mother’s Day. C.”

This only fueled ongoing conspiracy theories about Middleton’s whereabouts, as the mother of three has not made a public appearance since Kensington Palace announced she underwent a “planned” abdominal surgery in January.

Concerned fans of the princess were unhappy with Lively, who they believed used her caption to “make fun” of the royal scandal. While some users (including Hugh Jackman) responded positively to the post, others criticized the entrepreneur for “mocking a woman that is recovering from a surgery.”

“Cmon Blake, some class. The princess is clearly pretty sick, and you are trolling her? Not cool. Expected more from you,” one user wrote, while multiple fans of the Gossip Girl star told her they were “disappointed” by the post.

“Wow so disgusting,” one user replied. “I was a fan, this is not how women lift other women up…do better Blake.”

While one commenter pointed out that Middleton is far from the only celebrity to be accused of photoshopping an image, another suggested Lively’s post actually targeted the Wales family’s PR team, and not the princess herself. “There’s no way Kate did the photoshopping nor typed up the response saying she did it,” they replied. “Blake is mocking the Royal PR firm, not Kate.”

Either way, Blake Lively is probably better off keeping her aim on Ryan Reynolds. Those jokes are always funny.