By ALAN COWELL and JOHN F. BURNS
LONDON — In a dispute evoking the furor that swirled around press coverage of Diana, Princess of Wales, Britain’s royal household began legal proceedings on Friday against a French magazine that published paparazzi photographs of the former Kate Middleton, the wife of Diana’s elder son, Prince William, sunbathing topless at a secluded villa in Provence.
‘‘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,’’ the
couple’s office said in a statement.
Coming after the publication of photographs last month of Prince Harry,
Diana’s younger son, cavorting naked at a party in Las Vegas, the
appearance of the images of the former Miss Middleton, now the Duchess
of Cambridge, in the French edition of Closer magazine raised profound
questions about the limits of royal privacy and threatened to revive old
strains with the press.
Before his marriage to Miss Middleton last year, Prince William
repeatedly indicated that he wished to shield her from what the royal
family depicted as the hounding of Diana before, throughout and after
her doomed marriage to his father, Prince Charles, the heir to the
British throne.
At the moment of her death in a car crash in Paris on Aug. 31, 1997,
photographers were in pursuit of Diana. “William and Harry lost their
mother in circumstances in France where the press, at that time, were
completely out of control,” Michael Ellis, a Conservative lawmaker, told
Sky News. “This will bring back painful memories.”
Another statement from the couple’s office called the publication of the
photographs of the Duchess of Cambridge “grotesque and totally
unjustifiable,” comparing the images to “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.”
The images of the duchess were not, initially at least, published in
Britain, where newspaper standards and practices have come under an
unaccustomed and fierce spotlight after the phone hacking scandal that
has focused primarily on Rupert Murdoch’s British newspapers.
A Web version of the cover of Closer hid its content behind a thick
black bar. In France, the magazine went on sale with a cover showing the
topless duchess, a headline in English saying “Oh my God!” and, in
French, “The Photos That Will Go Around the World.” Inside, several
grainy photographs showed the royal couple sunbathing beside a swimming
pool.
Referring to the duke and duchess, their office said Friday that “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 unjustifiable manner.”
“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. Officials acting on behalf of their royal highnesses
are consulting with lawyers to consider what options may be available
to the duke and duchess.”
The images emerged as the couple traveled in the Far East as part of a
tour observing the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II’s 60-year rule.
Their schedule for Friday included a visit to a mosque in Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia. The photographs were taken before the official tour, while
the couple vacationed in Provence, in southern France, last week at what
British media reports described as a chateau owned by Lord Linley, the
Queen’s nephew.
The villa complex, built around a 19th-century hunting lodge called the
Château d’Autet, is set in 640 acres of woodland and can house up to 17
people at four main properties. Apart from being a vacation retreat for
Lord Linley and his family, it has also been rented out for thousands of
dollars a week, offering guests a variety of recreational options
including a tennis court, a swimming pool and an area to play the French
bowling game called boule. A promotional Web site extolled its unique
“peace and quiet.”
Prime Minister David Cameron’s office joined broad condemnation of the
publication of the photographs, saying that Mr. Cameron “echoed the
anger and sadness of the palace” and that the duke and duchess “are
entitled to their privacy.”
Condemnation of the publication spread across the British news media, sometimes evoking old rivalries between France and Britain. A headline in the tabloid The Daily Mirror referred to the French edition of Closer as a “sneaky French mag.”
Diana’s friend Rosa Monckton said in a message on Twitter: “I’m on a
rant and very angry having seen at firsthand the emotional price paid
for press intrusion. My last word on this: leave Kate alone.”
According to the newspaper The Evening Standard, 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. Prince William appeared to be reading an iPad as Kate
rubbed sun cream into his back, the newspaper said.
Closer magazine insisted there had been no breach of safety or security,
according to The Evening Standard. “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,” an unidentified person at Closer magazine was
quoted as saying.
The editor of Closer magazine in France, Laurence Pieau, defended the
decision to publish the pictures. “For me those pictures are not
shocking,” Ms. Pieau told The Associated Press. “Just a beautiful
couple, an in-love couple in the south of France. Kate is the girl next
door.”
Since the couple married, the British press has generally fallen in with
informal requests by their office for privacy, although The Sun, a
Murdoch-owned tabloid, defied a royal request to refrain from publishing
the photographs of the naked Prince Harry after they appeared
elsewhere.
The British edition of Closer magazine said on Friday that it had not
been offered the photographs of the duchess and would not anyhow publish
them.
But overseas outlets have been less cooperative with the royal
household, publishing photographs of the couple and their puppy despite
efforts by royal officials to discourage coverage of the dog.
According to British media, there have been Internet photographs of the
couple walking the dog on a beach in Anglesey, near a Royal Air Force
base where Prince William is a search and rescue helicopter pilot. An
Australian magazine has also printed pictures of the couple on their
honeymoon in Seychelles.
French legal experts who work on privacy issues said the couple could
have a strong case under French privacy laws if they sue in a French
court. Jean-Frédéric Gaultier, a parter in the law firm Olswang, told
the BBC that the couple could sue for an injunction to force Closer to
withdraw the issue carrying the photographs, and to prevent any sale of
the photographs to other publications. They could also sue for damages,
he said.
Mr. Gaultier said that there had been a longstanding wariness in France
toward media invasion of the private lives of public figures, but that
this had eased since the sex scandal that enveloped Dominique
Strauss-Kahn, the former French finance minister and onetime head of the
International Monetary Fund.
“Things are changing,” he said, but not to the degree that French courts
would accept paparazzi using “long-lens photography” to intrude into
the private lives of the duke and duchess. “The overwhelming public
interest in this case is not obvious,” he said.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: September 14, 2012
An earlier version of this article incorrectly identified Laurence Pieau, the editor of the French edition of the magazine Closer, as a man. Ms. Pieau is a woman.
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