Fury over topless Kate pictures: Duke and Duchess of Cambridge launch legal action against French Closer magazine

- Royal couple launch legal action over topless pictures- 'Grotesque and totally unjustifiable' invasion of privacy- William and Kate express 'anger and disbelief' by pictures taken on private estate while on holiday- French magazine Closer defends publication of photographs- Palace said publication is like 'turning the clock back 15 years'
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William and Kate tonight launched legal action against a French magazine following the publication of topless pictures of the Duchess of Cambridge.

St James's Palace announced that lawyers would be pursuing the matter through the French courts.

In a short statement, the palace said: "St James's Palace confirms that legal proceedings for breach of privacy have been commenced today in France by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge against the publishers of Closer Magazine France."

But the French magazine this afternoon defended its action, saying the pictures showed "a beautiful, in love, modern holidaying young couple, in their normal life".

William and Kate expressed their “anger and disbelief” as the pictures of the Duchess sunbathing topless were published by Closer.

A spokesman for the couple accused Closer of a “grotesque and totally unjustifiable” invasion of privacy and said the behaviour was “reminiscent of the worst excesses” suffered by Princess Diana.

The magazine’s front cover today featured three images of the couple sunbathing last week on a private holiday in Provence. Two of the shots showed the duchess topless. St James’s Palace contacted French lawyers to establish grounds for legal action to prevent further breaches of privacy.

Today a spokesman for Closer told the Evening Standard: "The photographs we have selected are by no means degrading. They show a beautiful, in love, modern holidaying young couple, in their normal life. The article reports on the couple’s recent stay in the South of France”.

Royal aides said there was anger that a “red line” had been crossed and stressed the couple could not have tried harder to find a secluded location to relax prior to their tour of South-East Asia.

In an unusually fierce statement, a St James’s Palace spokesman said: “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.

“The incident is reminiscent of the worst excesses of the press and paparazzi during the life of Diana, Princess of Wales, and all the more upsetting to the duke and duchess for being so. Their Royal Highnesses had every expectation of privacy in the remote house. It is unthinkable that anyone should take such photographs, let alone publish them.”

This afternoon William looked-grim faced and gritted his teeth as he and Kate, who put a supportive hand on his back, boarded a plane to the Malaysian state of Sabah, where they will explore the rainforest tomorrow.

David Cameron led widespread condemnation of the intrusion. “We echo the anger and sadness of the Palace. They are entitled to their privacy.”

Princess Diana’s friend Rosa Monckton tweeted: “I’m on a rant and very angry having seen at first hand the emotional price paid for press intrusion. My last word on this: leave Kate alone.”

The images were taken while the couple were at a chateau belonging to Lord Linley, the Queen’s nephew.

Closer magazine, which is owned by the family of disgraced former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, published them above the headline “Oh my God”. It described Kate as a “nymph”.

The magazine, which distributed 400,000 copies in France, also published four pictures of Kate topless on its inside pages but chose not to reveal the full images on its website. Its editor Laurence Pieau, said it had more revealing pictures. He added: “Harry is going to feel a lot less alone.”

Legal experts said it was prepared to break strict French laws as increased sales would compensate for any fine imposed by the courts.

Viscount Linley is said to have offered the couple a private break at Chateau D’Autet but this lured William and Kate into a false sense of security.

Photographers, including local cameramen not linked to international paparazzi, said the couple were visible from a nearby road as they relaxed on a terrace beside a pool. William appeared to be reading an iPad as Kate rubbed sun cream into his back.

Closer insisted there had been no breach of safety or security. “If two public figures chose to strip off in full view of a public road then they can expect to be pictured, and they were,” said one source at the magazine.

The UK edition of Closer, which is not owned by the same firm, distanced itself from the pictures and said it would never publish them.

Wills' pain at press hounding Kate like Diana

Ross Lydall

PRINCE William’s worst fears that his wife would be hounded like his mother were realised today — in the same country where Princess Diana was chased to her death.

The Duke’s distress at the explicit images will have been deepened by the memory of French paparazzi pursuing Diana through a Paris tunnel.

He still believes their actions contributed to her death in a car crash in August 1997 and has fought to protect his wife from the same treatment.

The intrusion into Diana’s privacy began in 1981 when she was pregnant with William and on holiday in the Caribbean.

Shots of her in a bathing costume were published in The Sun and The People despite the Queen appealing to editors to allow Diana her privacy.

This privacy was again infamously breached in 1993 when the Daily Mirror published shots of her exercising at a gym. Despite being regarded as adept at ”playing” the media, and using publicity to score points in her acrimonious separation from Prince Charles, she felt deeply upset at the intrusion.

The Duchess of York was also exposed when, in 1992, shots taken at a villa in the south of France showed her having her toes sucked by financial adviser John Bryan. This brought an end to her marriage to Prince Andrew.

In 1999, The Sun apologised to Sophie Rhys-Jones after publishing a picture of her topless just before her wedding to Prince Edward. The shot had been taken the previous year and showed Chris Tarrant lifting up her top while messing about in the back of a car. Buckingham Palace had accused the paper of “premeditated cruelty”.

Last month, US gossip website TMZ published pictures of Prince Harry frolicking naked in a Las Vegas hotel.

In the UK, only The Sun decided to print the pictures. Its managing editor, David Dinsmore, said the photos represented “a crucial test of Britain’s free press”, and argued it was “vital” that it ran them.

In light of all this, both William and the Palace were determined that Kate should be protected. She had already suffered when they were still boyfriend and girlfriend, as photographers would wait for her emerging from her Chelsea flat to go to work in Kew.

The scenes, in which photographers would surround her car, bore an uncomfortable resemblance to the way the press pack would wait for Diana in 1980 as she went to work as a kindergarten teacher.

Pictures of Kate playing tennis in 2009, taken at Restormel Manor in Cornwall, were published in Germany despite a request from the palace not to do so. Harbottle and Lewis, the legal firm used by the Queen and Prince Charles, secured £5,000 in damages and a public apology for Kate.

Since the royal wedding in April last year, the British press has abided by an informal request from St James’s Palace for the newlyweds to be allowed privacy.

There were occasional shots of Kate shopping at supermarkets in Anglesey, and the UK media was warned off reproducing shots of Kate’s mother Carole shooting at Balmoral because they were taken by a photographer trespassing on private land.

But the foreign media have not been so careful. In February, the US magazine People published apparently innocent shots of her walking her puppy Lupo in Kensington Gardens.

St James’s Palace had gone to great lengths to discourage coverage of the puppy.

Pictures of William and Kate walking Lupo on a beach in Anglesey, near the duke’s RAF base, also appeared on the internet but have been largely avoided by the UK press.

In July, the Australian magazine Woman’s Day printed pictures of the couple — and Kate in a tiny bikini — walking hand in hand along a Seychelles beach on their honeymoon.

Tory MP Michael Ellis, a leading royalist at Westminster, said the incident smacked of “the worst excesses” of paparazzi behaviour before the death of Diana.

Magazine ready to risk heavy fine

The owner of French celebrity magazine Closer is gambling that it will see a big increase in sales and publicity from the Kate photos that will more than offset the cost of any public outcry or fine.

Italian media group Mondadori, which is controlled by the family of ex-prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, can afford it because France imposes relatively low financial penalties for invasion of privacy.

Valérie Trierweiler, partner of French President François Hollande, won only ¤2,000 last week when she sued another magazine, VSD, after it ran a paparazzo photo of her in a bikini on its front cover. Ms Trierweiler had sought ¤30,000. Closer has a weekly circulation of 414,000 and industry insiders suggested it would be hoping to nearly double that figure.

The magazine launched in 2005 and is one of a new breed of brash titles that has embraced celebrity news.

A spokesman for Mondadori in Italy declined to comment. The British edition of Closer is entirely separate from the French title and is owned by German group Bauer.

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