Topless photos of Kate Middleton which showed up in a French magazine last year are at the center of some trouble for two people, who have now had charges filed against them.
Ernesto Mauri, the chief executive of the company that owns Closer Magazine, has been charged with invasion of privacy. A photographer, Valerie Suau, has been charged as well for taking the photos and publishing them in her newspaper, La Provence; however, Suau claims she didn’t take the topless photos, only snapping Kate in her bikini. An investigation has been launched to determine whether she took the photos that appeared in Closer.
The Duchess was photographed while sunbathing on vacation at a private residence in France last September, causing a huge uproar in Britain and launching a crusade by Middleton and Prince William against paparazzi being so intrusive. However, Closer editor Laurence Pieau claimed that Middleton was doing what millions of other European women do, and that the photos shouldn’t have come as such a shock to people.
“These photos are not in the least shocking. They show a young woman sunbathing topless, like the millions of women you see on beaches,” he said.
Perhaps what was most unsettling to many was not the fact that Middleton was sunbathing topless, but that she was doing it at a private residence in front of a secret audience with a long lens. Prince William made the decision to sue Closer after the photos were published and compared the invasion of his wife’s privacy to the behavior of the media towards his mother, Princess Diana, who died tragically in a car accident in France while allegedly trying to outrun photographers.