Magazine execs fined over topless Duchess Kate photos
NANTERRE, France -- A French court imposed maximum fines on Tuesday against two gossip magazine executives for publishing topless photos of Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge.
The court had been due to rule on whether three photographers and three newspaper executives invaded the privacy of the Duchess of Cambridge, formerly named Kate Middleton, by taking and publishing topless photos of her that outraged the British royal family.
The court ordered the bosses of the magazine to pay 100,000 euros ($118,000) in damages to Kate and her husband Prince William over the photos, published in 2012. The court also ordered Closer magazine's editor and owner to each pay 45,000 euros ($53,000), the maximum possible fines under French privacy law.
A prosecutor at a Paris suburb court had asked for high fines, and lawyers for Kate and William had sought heavy damages.
The couple, who did not attend the verdict hearing on Tuesday, had filed a complaint after the photos were published in Closer and a regional newspaper the year after their wedding.
The pictures of Kate were taken with telephoto lenses while she and her husband apparently were sunbathing on a patio at a private estate in France's southern Provence region.
Kensington Palace announced on Monday that Kate was pregnant with the royal couple's third child, and she cancelled all public events for the day due to acute morning sickness. She has dealt with the extreme sickness in all three of her pregnancies.