The verdict is in: Two French gossip publications will have to pay up after publishing topless photos of Kate Middleton.
Back in 2012, the French magazine Closer and the local newspaper La Provence published photos taken with telephoto lenses of the Duchess of Cambridge sunbathing topless with Prince William at a chateau in France. Closer‘s headline translated to “Oh My God: the photos that will go around the world.” Sure enough, the photos spread to other European publications — despite the couple’s getting an injunction against their further use.
After the photos came out, William and Catherine sued Closer‘s editor and owner and the photographers who took the pictures — who were part of a celebrity photo agency — for violation of privacy. Five years later, they’ve now been awarded 100 000 euros (R1.5 million) in damages by a French court — significantly less than the 1.5 million euros they asked for.
The Closer executives were each fined 45 000 euros (R692 000) — the maximum fine — and Catherine and William each got 50 000 euros (R768 000) from the executives and photographers.
Closer’s lawyer, Paul-Albert Iweins, argued at a hearing in May that “the public and private lives of the royal couple are so closely linked as to be inseparable” and “it’s of public interest to know that future heirs to the throne have a solid relationship and are getting on well.”
In a letter read by his lawyer during the same hearing, Prince William said the scandal was “particularly shocking because it reminded us of the harassment that led to the death of my mother, Diana, Princess of Wales.” (Princess Diana died in a car accident after her vehicle was chased by photographers in Paris.)
Soon after the photos were published, St. James’s Palace said in a statement that they represented a “grotesque and totally unjustifiable” invasion of privacy. It continued, “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.”
Taken from GLAMOUR US. Click here to read the original.
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