LONDON — In a dispute evoking the furor that swirled around press coverage of Princess Diana, Britain’s royalhousehold on Friday issued a powerful rebuke to a French magazine that published paparazzi photographs of Kate Middleton, the wife of Diana’s elder son William, sunbathing topless at a secludedand upscale villa in the lavender fields ofProvence.
Coming after the publication of photographs last month of Prince Harry, Diana’s younger son, cavorting naked at a party in Las Vegas, the appearance of the images of Ms. Middleton in the French edition of Closer magazine raised profound questions about the limits of royal privacy and threatened to revive old strains with the press.
Before his marriage to Ms. Middleton last year, Prince William had repeatedly indicated that he wished to shield her from what the royal family depicted as the hounding of Diana before, throughout and after her doomed marriage to his father, Prince Charles, the heir to the British throne.
At the moment of her death in a car crash in Paris on August 31, 1997, photographers were in pursuit of Diana to the last.
In a statement on Friday, aides to the royal couple called the publication of photographs of Ms. Middleton “grotesque and totally unjustifiable,”comparing the images with “the worst excesses of the press and paparazzi during thelife of Diana, Princessof Wales, and all the more upsetting to the duke and duchess for being so.”
Since their marriage,the Kate and Williamhave been anointed as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
The images of Ms. Middleton were not, initially at least, published in Britain, where newspaper standards and practices have come under an unaccustomed and fierce spotlight following the phone hacking scandal that has focused primarily on Rupert Murdoch’s British newspapers.
A Web version of thecover of Closer magazine hid its content behind a thick, black bar.
Referring to the Duke and Duchess, their office said Friday that “their royal highnesses have been hugely saddened to learn that a French publication and a photographer have invaded their privacyin such a grotesque and unjustifiable manner.”
“Their royal highnesses had every expectation of privacy in the remote house. It is unthinkable that anyone should take such photographs, let alone publish them. Officials actingon behalf of their royal highnesses are consulting with lawyers to consider what options may be available to the Duke and Duchess.”
The images emergedas the couple traveled in the Far East as part of a tour to mark the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II’s 60-year rule. The photographs were taken before the official tour while the couple vacationed in Provence, in southern France, lastweek at what Britishmedia reports described as a chateau owned by Lord Linley, the Queen’s nephew.
Prime Minister DavidCameron joined broad condemnationof the publication of the photographs, saying, “We echo theanger and sadness ofthe palace. They are entitled to their privacy.”
Princess Diana’s friend Rosa Monckton said in a message on Twitter: “I’m on a rant and very angry having seen at first hand the emotional price paid for press intrusion. My last word on this: leave Kate alone.”
According to The Evening Standard newspaper, photographers, including local cameramen not linked to international paparazzi, said the couple were visible from a nearby road as they relaxed on a terrace beside a pool. Prince William appeared to be reading an iPad as Kate rubbed sun cream into his back, the newspaper said.
Closer magazine insisted there had been no breach of safety or security, according to The Evening Standard. “Iftwo public figures chose to strip off in full view of a public road then they can expect to be pictured, and they were,” an unidentified person at Closer magazine was quoted as saying.
The Daily Mirror tabloid quoted the editor of Closer magazine in France, Laurence Pieau, as defending the decision to publish the pictures. “These photos are not in theleast shocking,” he said. “They show a young woman sunbathing topless, like the millions of women you see on beaches.”
Since the couple married, the British press has generally fallen in with informal requests by their office for privacy.
But overseas outlets have been less cooperative with thehousehold, publishing photographs of the couple and their puppy despite efforts by royal officials to discourage coverage of the dog.
According to British media, there have been Internet photographs of the couple walking the dog on a beach in Anglesey, near a Royal Air Force base where Prince William is a search and rescue helicopter pilot. An Australian magazine has also printed picture of the coupleon their honeymoon in the Seychelles.

****ing Paparazi...

Have to have very good eyes. Even up close, she's pretty flat-chested.