Here’s why…
A French court has ruled that Closer magazine must pay The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge €100,000 in damages over topless pictures it printed of the Duchess.
The court ruled that the images, that were taken five years ago and published in a regional magazine as the royal couple holidayed in Provence in 2013, were an invasion of their privacy.
The judge awarded both the Duchess and Duke €50,000 each in damages.
The magazine’s editor Laurence Pieau and owner Ernesto Mauri must also pay fines of €45,000 each, the maximum amount possible.
The €100,000 (£92,000) damages awarded for breach of the couple’s privacy is considerably less than the €1.6m sought by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s lawyers.
The images were taken with a long lens as Catherine sunbathed on a terrace. They were published on the front and the inside pages of the regional Closer magazine in 2012.
The trial of six people including the photographer began in May and a statement from Prince William who said the case was “all the more painful” because of the way the paparazzi treated his mother before her death 20 years ago.
All six defendants were convicted of charges relating to the taking and publication of the images.
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