Gigi Hadid, Kris Jenner and more are victims of being overly airbrushed, contoured or filtered — all thanks to photo-editing.
It’s hard to believe some of these not-so-subtle Photoshop flubs made their way to the internet (or, in some cases, to print magazine covers). Hadid appeared alongside Ashley Graham and Kendall Jenner in a March 2017 issue of Vogue that stood to celebrate “modern American women.”
Fans were quick to spot the “aggressive Photoshop” that made Hadid’s left arm stretch all the way across both Kendall and Graham’s bodies. Others noticed that Graham, one of the few plus-size models to appear on Vogue’s cover, appeared slimmer than normal. The model responded to backlash at the time, saying that the magazine shouldn’t be to blame.
While some edits were out of these celebs’ control, others were personal filtering choices gone wrong. Kris posed with Gordon Ramsay to celebrate the release of her cookbook, In the Kitchen With Kris, in 2014 — and the two stars shared very different results from the photo shoot on Instagram.
From Lena Dunham‘s unnecessarily slimmed-down thighs to Avril Lavigne‘s missing upper arm, scroll down to see the most epic retouching fails!
Teresa Giudice’s Copy and Paste
The Real Housewives of New Jersey star drew criticism when she shared a birthday post for Larsa Pippen in July 2024. Alongside the message, Giudice uploaded a pic of the twosome on the beach — which had an outline around their bodies as if it had been copied and pasted onto a different background.
Giudice played along with the comments, sharing more pics with their outlined bodies placed in various settings. “Loving all the comments lol,” she captioned a post at the time, tagging The Real Housewives of Miami star.
Jeana Keough’s Trolling Daughter
The Real Housewives of Orange County alum was called out by daughter Kara Keough for over editing a snap of herself in July 2024. Days later, Jeana shared another image with smooth skin — and faced the wrath of Kara. “This ain’t it, sis,” Kara wrote on her mom’s Instagram post at the time.
Kate Middleton’s Manipulated Mother’s Day Image
The Princess of Wales raised eyebrows after uploading an image sitting alongside her and Prince William’s three children. Hours after the pic was shared online, several international news agencies reportedly refused to share the upload, claiming “the source has manipulated the image.” Kate subsequently addressed the controversy — and admitted to tweaking the Mother’s Day snap.
“Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing,” read an X post shared via the official Prince and Princess of Wales account in March 2024. “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.”
Paula Abdul’s Youthful Look
The “Straight Up” performer shared a seemingly edited picture of herself and Kathy Hilton at the Bravo star’s holiday party in December 2022. Abdul’s new look confused fans and they took to the comments section to say she did not resemble her natural self. “This looks like a completely different person,” one of her followers commented via Instagram.
Jameela Jamil’s Airbrush Nightmare
The Good Place alum reposted a photo of herself she’d found online via Instagram in May 2019, saying she was “struck by how edited” the picture was.
“It made me so mentally unwell trying to live up to this image in person. Airbrushing is the DEVIL,” Jamil wrote.
The True Kardashian Disneyland Photos
In January 2022, eagle-eyed fans speculated that photos of Khloé Kardashian’s daughter True at Disneyland with her cousin Chicago West looked photoshopped.
The Khloé & Lamar alum admitted to the botched editing job three months later when she accidentally shared that she was taking her daughter to the magical theme park for the first time. When her followers pointed out that meant the previous photos were fake, she came clean.
“Welllppp I f—ked this one up. Anyways … let’s focus on something else,” the Strong Looks Better Naked author tweeted.
Kim Kardashian Accused of Photoshopping Her Neck
In August 2022, TikTok user @caroline_in_the_city accused the Kardashians star of Photoshopping the trapezius muscle around her neck and shoulders in a photo promoting her collaboration with Beats By Dre.
To expose the alleged edit, the TikTok influencer reverse-Photoshopped the picture to highlight that doing so made the distortion in the pool water behind Kardashian look more normal.
Gigi Hadid’s Extra-Long Arm
A March 2017 Vogue issue celebrating “fashion’s fearless females” showed Gigi Hadid reaching across Kendall Jenner to rest her hand on Ashley Graham. Not only did people wonder whether or not Graham’s curves had been slimmed down for the cover shot, but many were skeptical about the “photoshop wizardry” that elongated Hadid’s arm an extra few inches.
Kris Jenner’s Wrinkle Eraser
The Keeping Up With the Kardashians star isn’t afraid to do a little retouching on her photos here and there, but the side-by-side comparison of this shot with Gordon Ramsey takes airbrushing one step too far. Ramsey shared the original version of Jenner’s wrinkle-free photo on his Instagram in 2014, and the difference between the two is shocking.
Ariana’s Grande-Sized Hand
The “Focus” singer posted this promo before releasing a new single in 2015, but something just wasn’t sitting right with the size of her right hand. Standing with her arms crossed in front of her chest, Grande’s thumb looked almost as long as her infamous ponytail. The former Nickelodeon star quickly disabled the comments on the post after fans started to notice the enormous edit.
Khloé Kardashian’s Filtered Face
The Good American cofounder shared a glam shot on Instagram in September and was almost unrecognizable to her millions of followers. “Old photo but I like it,” Kardashian captioned the photo of herself with a super-high blonde ponytail and bold brows. In an attempt to tone down the hate from people who swore she had a “whole new face,” the reality star turned off comments on the highly filtered picture.
Avril Lavigne’s Insanely Skinny Arm
In 2010, Avril Lavigne posed for the November cover of Maxim — and apparently lost part of a limb in the process. The men’s magazine digitally shaved flesh off of the Canadian pop star’s mid-section in an attempt to add more curves to her thin frame; but the mag’s photo editors accidentally whittled Lavigne’s upper arm down to unrealistic proportions.
Gigi Hadid’s Mole-Free Mid-Section
Supermodel Gigi Hadid is known for her insanely toned abs which, as fans know, are speckled with moles. In February 2016, her mid-section was completely wiped clean of her characteristic markings for the cover of Vogue China. Hadid’s supporters lashed out at the magazine for airbrushing her moles away. “Wow, they totally covered up all your beauty marks on your stomach,” one fan noticed after the blonde beauty shared the cover via Instagram on February 15. “This is so airbrushed that her moles aren’t even showing,” another weighed in.
Jeb Bush’s Mind-Boggling Black Hand
In August 2015, Jeb Bush released a flyer to drum up support for his failed Republican presidential run. But instead of bringing attention to his campaign, all focus was on the politician’s mysterious black left hand. “Jeb Bush has a photoshopped photo for an ad which gives him a black left hand and much different looking body,” current GOP frontrunner Donald Trump tweeted at the time. “Jeb just can’t get it right!”
Kate Winslet’s Leg Loss
GQ took some creative liberties with Kate Winslet’s body for a cover in January 2003. “I actually have a Polaroid that the photographer gave me on the day of the shoot… I can tell you they’ve reduced the size of my legs by about a third,” the Titanic star candidly told the BBC at the time. “For my money, it looks pretty good the way it was taken.”
The Pretty Little Liars’ Way-Too-Perfect Poster
The excessively airbrushed art released to promote the fourth season of Pretty Little Liars didn’t sit well with the a few of the series’ stars. “Saw this floating around….hope it’s not the poster,” Ashley Benson wrote on Instagram. “Our faces in this were from 4 years ago…..and we all look ridiculous. Way too much photo shop. We all have flaws. No one looks like this. It’s not attractive.”Her costar Troian Bellisario concurred: “Wow @itsashbenzo I couldn’t agree more. Very cool concept as always. But aren’t we attractive enough women as we are? Why can’t we just look like us. Once.”
Lindsay Lohan’s Booty Blunder
In March 2015, Lindsay Lohan proudly posted the above image to Instagram, writing: “My feet look red lol — had to take that out. Only real red is my hair. 😘”Most likely not real? Her backside, which appears to be digitally altered, judging from the suspiciously wavy background of the photo.
Zendaya’s Pin-Thin Frame
In October 2015, Zendaya slammed Modeliste Magazine for paring off weight from her already-slender physique. “Had a new shoot come out today and was shocked when I found my 19 year old hips and torso quite manipulated. These are the things that make women self conscious, that create the unrealistic ideals of beauty that we have,” she wrote alongside a side-by-side of the Photoshopped pic and the original image. “Anyone who knows who I am knows I stand for honest and pure self love. So I took it upon myself to release the real pic (right side) and I love it.”
Lena Dunham’s Startling Slimdown
Spanish magazine Tentaciones featured Lena Dunham on their cover in March 2016. The Girls creator and actress called out the publication for slimming down her curvy figure, writing on Instagram that “the magazine has done more than the average photoshop.”She later apologized for overreacting in a follow-up post: “I look great. But it’s a weird feeling to see a photo and not know if it’s your own body anymore (and I’m pretty sure that will never be my thigh width but I honestly can’t tell what’s been slimmed and what hasn’t.) I’m not blaming anyone (y’know, except society at large.)”
Donald Trump’s T-Shirt Model Skin Swap
In March 2016, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s campaign was accused of Photoshopping the skin color of a white tee shirt model to be brown. Eric Ming, the digital director for Maryland Democratic Rep. Donna Edwards’ Senate campaign, was the first to point out the obvious digital skin tinting. “So it appears Donald Trump’s campaign photoshopped their model to be brown,” he tweeted. Buzzfeed later pointed out that the original image of the caucasian girl wearing a logo-free top originally appeared on the JCG Apparel website.
Lili Reinhart and Camila Mendes
Lili Reinhart and Camila Mendes took a stand against Cosmopolitan Philippines for photoshopping their images. The Riverdale stars
