The British royal family faced a setback as topless photographs of Kate Middleton, wife of Prince William, were printed in an Irish tabloid on Saturday and an Italian magazine announced its plans to print them next week in spite of legal action being initiated against French magazine Closer.
The Irish Daily Star printed the controversial photographs on Saturday and Clarence House said that there could be no motivation for publishing these images but “greed.”
The Daily Star, which has multiple UK editions, however, did not publish these pictures in the UK, where no media outlet has printed the photographs.
Defending the decision to print the photographs, Irish Daily Star editor Mike O’Kane told BBC, “The duchess would be no different to any other celeb pics we would get in, for example Rihanna or Lady Gaga. She’s not the future queen of Ireland so really the only place this is causing fury seems to be in the UK, and they are very very tasteful pictures.”
Italian weekly gossip magazine Chi is planning a 26-page photo special of William and Kate in France in a special edition next week. “The fact that these are the future rulers of England makes the article more interesting and topical,” Chi’s editor Alfonso Signorini told the BBC. “This is a deserving topic because it shows in a completely natural way the daily life of a very famous, young and modern couple in love,” he said.
Chi is published by Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, the biggest Italian publishing company, which is owned by the family of former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. The group also owns Closer, which printed Kate’s topless photographs on Friday. The photographs were taken by paparazzi last week while William and Kate were staying at a chateau owned by Lord Linley, the queen’s nephew, in Provence, France, just before their trip of Southeast Asia.
Clarence House on Saturday warned of “proportionate response” against breach of privacy of Prince William and his wife and said the publication of the photographs would upset the young couple. “We will not be commenting on potential legal action concerning the alleged intended publication of the photos in Italy save to say that all proportionate responses will be kept under review,” St. James’ Palace said on Saturday.
“Any such publication would serve no purpose other than to cause further, entirely unjustifiable upset to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, who were enjoying time alone together in the privacy of a relative’s home.”