Duchess Kate photoshopped on mag cover by 'desperate' editor

Washington, July 17 (ANI): Duchess of Cambridge has turned down all the requests to get clicked as the cover girl of various magazines.

So when the August issue of Marie Claire South Africa came out with Kate smiling brightly on its cover, it generated a ton of buzz, but for all the wrong reasons.

The editor's have superimposed the royal's face on a model's body wearing designs by South African designer Clive Rundle with the headline: "Fashion's new royal icon wears SA's best local designers*" and a disclaimer: "*Of course she doesn't. But she should."

Inside the magazine, the 30-year-old is pictured in a series of five illustrations dressed in clothes from local designers.

"We were so inspired by her fairytale wedding and her life as a modern-day princess, which is why we elected Kate Middleton as our cover star for the August issue," ABC News quoted the magazine's editor Aspasia Karras as telling the Telegraph.

"The cover is actually a hyper-real illustration of Kate, meant to be a fan art tribute to fashion's new royal icon," she said.

While the magazine calls their work a "hyper-real illustration," others have dubbed it as creepy, or worse.

"So she didn't actually pose for the cover? How is that a good thing? Aren't you cheating your readers as well as your cover subject?" wrote one commenter to the Telegraph. A series of polls also popped up online asking readers if the magazine's move was okay or a royal faux pas.

Kate has remained silent on the cover so far but it's not the first time the Duchess has received the photoshop treatment. (ANI)