| French magazine prints Kate’s topless photos, defends move |
PARIS The editor of French magazine Closer on Friday defended publishing topless photos of Prince William’s wife Catherine and said she was offering them for sale to publications across the world.
“Their Royal Highnesses have been hugely saddened to learn that a French publication and a photographer have invaded their privacy in such a grotesque and totally unjustifiable manner,” their office St James’s Palace said.
The grainy pictures show Catherine, 30, wearing just the bottoms of a black and white bikini and having suncream rubbed on to her behind by William while on holiday in the south of France.
In one of the pictures, the couple are laughing as they lounge in chairs near a folded red parasol. In another, Catherine holds the top of her bikini across her chest, either taking it off or putting it back on.
“These photos are not in the least shocking. They show a young woman sunbathing topless, like the millions of women you see on beaches,” Laurence Pieau said.
She said that La Provence, a local newspaper in the southern French region where the pictures were taken, had previously published a picture of the couple sunbathing on the same terrace of the chateau where the topless pictures were taken.
“It’s still on the Internet. That shocked no-one,” she said. Pieau declined to say how much the magazine had paid for the images.
She said the terrace of the Viscount Linley villa in southern France where Catherine was pictured sunbathing with her husband was clearly visible from a nearby road.
The photos were taken “by a professional photographer with whom we have previously worked,” she said.
The three-day holiday began at Marseille-Marignane airport on September 5 and “Kate even smoked a cigarette between the airport’s exit and the car that was to take them towards their little paradise,” the magazine wrote.
British newspapers reportedly turned down offers to buy the pictures.
Agencies
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