Come on Kate, it's only pair of titties.

The French don't give a stuff about topless monarchs. Their first was in 1793

I don't feel in the slightest bit sorry for Kate. She knows that her photographs are sought after and should have known that taking her clothes off put her at risk of being caught and photographed. I think they are making too big a deal of it and if they had just ignored it it would have gone away. By making such a fuss and going legal they are keeping it in the public eye !

There are so many bad things going on in the world, those two young police officers have just been murdered, so who really gives a stuff about an over privileged spoilt little rich girl taking her top off in public?

It's not about the topless bit really is it. It's whether the Royals are entitled to privacy. Where the line is drawn. They thought they were in a private place. There may or may not have been staff around - who they undoubtedly know well and are relaxed around, that's immaterial. They thought they were in a private place. Is it OK to photograph them on a balcony a mile away? At the breakfast table? In the bedroom? They have to make a stand. There has to be a limit.

petallus Perhaps she was a victim of her own success.

I thought Diana was supposed to be a crafty media manipulator!

johanna I suspect that the couple were "saddened", "outraged" etc. because of history and the late Princess of Wales, too.

Got the splinters to prove it merlot

Yeh, googled and ogled!

Ella Please tell us it wasn't you who climbed up that tree was it?

What!? You've actually seen them, Ella?

I'd have been embarrassed.... they weren't very flattering!

I think they should learn from this and move on. They've done a great job in the South Pacific. It will soon be yesterday's news.

Perhaps we should have a little reflection here, and put it into perspective.

The couple were saddened , upset, outraged etc. etc.
We must ask ourselves why? For the sake of the public?
No, may be not. For the sake of their own peers? Yes, definitely. Those very peers who made fun of her mother at the time,
( " doors to manual ", remember? ), and of course their standing within the rest of the world's royalty.
Hence Prince William's fury.

Oops imagines Superman appearing at their bedside. I was meaning camera lens zooming.

I read that pics were taken from a road a mile away. So hardly a passing paprazzi, he must have had a v strong pair of binoculars in the first place, then homed in with the telephoto lens, nowadays photos can be easily enhanced digitally so I spose nothing is safe. But a mile is a long way, it wasn't passing good fortune but a deliberate invasion of privacy.

I mean if they forget to close the bedroom curtains one night and someone zooms in through the windows would that be publishable ie 'they should have closed their curtains, what were they thinking of' etc

I didn't say that you have had threads deleted Greatnan! I just meant I was sick of the sight of this one. Didn't mean anything by it.

Don't over think all this.

As others have said, they were not alone as there would have been staff and security personnel all around. She is clearly not shy and could certainly have been under no illusion that only her husband could see her body. There must always be a risk of leaked photographs from any of these sources, and I cannot believe that they are not advised to be more discreet. At the same time, I agree that the publication of such photographs without the consent of the subject is disgraceful.

I seem to remember reading that Lord Linley bought the chateau in France with the proceeds from the sale of Princess Margaret's home in Mustique. She got up to some rare old high jinks during her holidays there and we didn't find out about them until after her death as the locals were discreet. When in Europe, keep your top on Kate.

Jingle - I have never asked for any thread to be deleted, except when I was afraid that my daugher would be able to read what I had said about her. Nothing on any other thread is sufficiently important to get it deleted.
I don't bear grudges.

totally agree with BAGS! why take the risk? would it really have killed her to keep her top on? it's a question of being discreet-you can't imagine any photos of the Queen topless turning up anywhere can you! there must have been security men etc around too so why not just be a bit more modest! and in no way am I a prude btw though I would be far too shy myself to go topless outside of the house (even when young)

Greatnan - get the thread deleted. On the grounds that we are all sick of the sight of it.

Yes! I know she's doing a great job!

And she's very nice.

Greatnan - sorry about the "titties" and "boobs".

I'm really bored with it now.

She's not really that royal. And by the time she does become queen, all the royals will be a lot less royal. Probably.

mischief …or a daughter?

As someone who has also sunbathed topless on a French beach, I too feel so very sorry for Kate and Wills.

If I put myself in their place, and I am on a 640acre estate with my husband, having a long awaited holiday and the nearest public road is a kilometre away. It's hot and I want to sunbath topless with the only person to see me being my husband. Then, a couple of weeks later during a public visit to Singapore.....

...pictures of my topless self are splashed all over a french newspaper and I am horrified to think that men will be mentally undressing me wherever I go from now on, I would be mortified.

It's not really a question of her being topless, as others have said, she's no different from any other woman in that respect but she chose to do it in the, what she thought was, the 'privacy' of the location. It took a supertelescopic lens to get those photographs.

If the photographer or the editor of the magazine has a partner, how would they like a photo of them being published when they thought they were in private. Now there's an idea.