Post date: Sep 20, 2012 3:58:59 PM
The pictures were published despite a decision by a French court on Tuesday (September 18) to ban gossip magazine Closer from further publishing the photographs and ordering it to hand the pictures over to the royal couple.
The injunction granted to the Duke and the Duchess of Cambridge, as the couple are formally known, also prevents Closer from selling the pictures to other media.
The editor of a Swedish gossip magazine that has featured topless photographs of the wife of Britain's Prince William, the former Kate Middleton, defends her decision to publish.
STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN (SEPTEMBER 20, 2012)(REUTERS) - Swedish and Danish celebrity gossip magazines have published topless photographs this week of the wife of Britain's Prince William, the former Kate Middleton.
But Carina Lofkvist said her magazine, "Se och Hor" (See and Hear), had bought the pictures on Friday (September 14). The magazine published 11 pictures of the royal couple on holiday, of which four show the duchess topless.
She said the magazine decided to publish the pictures because they were not in any way obscene and it had in the past published similar pictures of celebrities.
"We made the judgement call like we do with any other celebrity news. Do we want to publish it? Is it newsworthy or not? And we thought so and we published it," she said.
The pictures were taken while the couple were on holiday in a chateau in southern France and show the duchess slipping off her bikini top, relaxing on a sun lounger and at one point pulling down the back of her bikini bottoms.
Buckingham Palace has called the photo spread a "grotesque" invasion of the couple's privacy.
Lofkvist said the couple had to be aware they could be photographed if they showed themselves in a place open to public view, adding the fact these pictures were of a royal couple was also neither here nor there.
"We bought the pictures on Friday the 14th so we didn't really realise it would create such a buzz. I'm quite honestly surprised of all the buzz. I mean we've seen breasts before and we usually publish nice holiday pictures of celebrities where they show maybe topless or even - they show more - so these are kind of nice pictures of a nice couple who is very much in love and nothing spectacular," she said.
The Danish equivalent of the magazine, "Se og Hor", owned by the same Danish media company, also published pictures of the duchess.
In a statement, its editor-in-chief Kim Henningsen said it was in Se of Hor's DNA to "entertain and satisfy our readers' curiosity".
Neither the Swedish nor Danish magazine are to publish the pictures electronically.
In Copenhagen, some people thought famous people should be left alone.
"Well, I find it ridiculous, and it's a ridiculous magazine and the reason they do it is of course to earn some money. And, in a way you can't blame them for that, it is not a surprise, but I think they ought to leave people's privacy where it belongs," Carsten Hall said.
"What I think about it, is ok, but when think about their royalty I don't think it's ok, because they have their freedom like we others do," said Martin Pilgaard.
Jette Ihlemann said it was a shame famous people could not enjoy their privacy.
"I think it's a shame that these kind of people can't be left alone, that they have to be constantly on guard; what do they do, how do they behave, do they look funny or whatever, because they can be - their photograph can be taken at anytime," she said.
On Monday (September 17), the publisher of tabloid The Irish Daily Star suspended its editor after the newspaper broke ranks with Irish and British peers, publishing pages from Closer with the photographs in its Saturday (September 15) edition.
Italian gossip magazine Chi, also published by Closer's owner Mondadori, printed a 26-page special edition dedicated to the pictures on Monday.