Danish celebrity magazine Se og Hoer plans to publish topless pictures of Prince William’s wife Catherine in a 16-page spread on Thursday, it said on its website Wednesday.
“Se og Hoer has exclusively (in Denmark) obtained the pictures of the topless Duchess of Cambridge, Kate. Tomorrow we will publish a 16-page spread full of piquant photos of England’s future queen,” it said.
The pictures, whose appearance in other publications have infuriated Britain’s royal family, will only be available in the weekly’s print version available on newsstands on Thursday, and not online.
“Our readers love to follow the lives of the royals and they want scoops. I am therefore incredibly proud that we have obtained the rights to provide the topless pictures of Britain’s future queen — which the whole world is talking about but very few have actually seen,” Se og Hoer chief editor Kim Henningsen said on the website. The paparazzi pictures, showing Kate sunbathing topless in the south of France several weeks ago, have already been widely circulated on the Internet after they were published first by French magazine Closer, then in Ireland’s Daily Star and Italy’s Chi magazine. The decision to run the images has incensed the royal family, whose lawyers have obtained a civil injunction and sought criminal charges in Paris. French authorities on Tuesday banned Closer magazine from any further distribution of the pictures and began a criminal probe into how they were obtained.
An injunction ordered the magazine to hand over all forms of the pictures to the British royal couple within 24 hours or face a 10,000-euro ($13,000) fine for every day’s delay.
The injunction also bans the glossy magazine from reusing them in print or on its website and re-selling them on pain of further 10,000-euro fines for each infringement.
Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for St James’s Palace, the office of Prince William and Catherine, told AFP that their response to the publication of the pictures in the Danish magazine was the same as to the publication in Italy.
“As we’ve said, we will not be commenting on potential legal action concerning the alleged intended publication of the photos save to say that all proportionate responses will be kept under review,” a spokeswoman said.
