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Cape Town - Paparazzi be warned – taking nude pics of a British royal will cost you a pretty penny.
This is what French magazine Closer discovered after publishing pics of Kate (36), the Duchess of Cambridge, sunbathing topless.
In September 2017 a French court fined the magazine a hefty R1,5 million, and on Wednesday a Versailles court upheld that verdict on appeal.
Laurence Pieau, Closer’s editor, and Ernesto Mauri, CEO of Mondadori that publishes the magazine, were both fined the maximum amount for which French law allows.
The two maintain the amount is excessive. The photographers who took the pics, Cyril Moreau and Dominique Jacovides, were each fined about R150 000. Both photographers however deny taking the pictures.
The pictures were taken in 2012 while Kate was tanning topless on a balcony in the Luberon region of France. She and husband William (36) had been on holiday at the time.
Closer published the photos on their front page – with the excuse that they’d wanted to disprove rumours that Kate was anorexic.
The pictures include ones of William rubbing sunscreen on his wife’s body.
The British royal family wasn’t impressed in the least with the picture. In a letter read in court in May last year, William stated the court case brings back painful memories of how the paparazzi had hounded his late mother, Princess Diana, her entire life.
In fact, the car crash in which the princess had died in Paris in 1997, had been preceded by a high-speed chase in an effort to get away from paparazzi.
