Duchess of Cambridge wins damages over topless photos

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The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have been awarded 100,000 euros (£92,000) after French magazine Closer printed topless pictures of the Duchess.

The French court ruled the images, taken as the royal couple holidayed in Provence five years ago, were an invasion of their privacy.

The judge awarded the royal couple 50,000 euros each in damages.

She also fined Closer magazine’s editor and owner 45,000 euros – the maximum amount allowed.

The damages fall short of the 1.6 million euros (£1.5m) sought by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s lawyers.

Long-lens images of Catherine sunbathing on a terrace were published on the front and inside pages of the Closer publication – which is separate to the UK’s Closer magazine – in 2012.

Presiding judge Florence Lasserre-Jeannin also instructed regional newspaper La Provence, which printed images of the Duchess in her swimwear, to pay 3,000 euros in damages during the hearing at the Tribunal de Grande Instance de Nanterre.

The judgement follows the trial of six people, including photographers and the former editor of Closer, which began in May.

All six defendants were convicted of charges relating to the taking and publication of the images.

A statement from Prince William was read at the trial in May. The Duke said: “The clandestine way in which these photographs were taken was particularly shocking to us as it breached our privacy.”

The invasion of privacy was “all the more painful” given his mother’s experience with the paparazzi, he added.