OVER THE WEEKEND, an unretouched photo of supermodel Cindy Crawford went viral.

The photo was shared by ITV News anchor Charlene White and billed as being from a forthcoming Marie Claire shoot.

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It was soon retweeted thousands of times and shared by dozens of news outlets.

As the image continued to ricochet across the internet, Marie Claire released a statement asserting that the photo was not taken from a forthcoming issue, and was instead a leak from a 2013 shoot.

While the claim accompanying the photo is that it will be printed in an upcoming issue of Marie Claire, its origins are actually from a December 2013 cover story from Marie Claire Mexico and Latin America. It appears that this unretouched version is a leak.

So, how did the photo begin doing the rounds again?

Twitter user @anyabike has compiled a timeline of the events leading up to the image resurfacing online.

The photo was seemingly leaked last August and swiftly taken down after a claim was made by the copyright holder.

However, the image remained online and was posted again three days ago by Caroline Criado Perez. Once again, a copyright claim was made and the image is no longer visible.

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According to @anyabike, the image remained online thanks to numerous manual retweets and soon it was everywhere.

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Metro Metro

The photo drew widespread support from women and Crawford was hailed as “inspirational”.

It helped prompt a discussion on body image and Marie Claire described the image as “honest” and “gorgeous”. (For her part, Crawford has remained silent on the matter and has not commented on its leak. )

However, the fact that the photo seems to have been shared without Crawford’s consent did make some people feel a little uneasy.

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In an op-ed written for The Guardian, Charlene White conceded that the circumstances surrounding the release of the image were unfortunate and hoped that it might prompt magazines like Marie Claire to ease up a little on Photoshop.

Do you know what would’ve been wonderful though? The picture not being a leak, and Marie Claire really doing an un-Photoshopped spread. Can you imagine how empowering that would be? I won’t hold my breath (but I’ll keep my fingers crossed just in case).

Here’s hoping.

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