In 2012, what was meant to be a private holiday in the South of France for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge turned into a nightmare. Paparazzi using long-range lenses photographed Kate Middleton sunbathing topless on the grounds of a private estate—images that were later published by French magazine Closer and other outlets.
Now, a new biography by royal expert Russell Myers reveals the depth of Prince William’s fury in the aftermath, describing a future king “ready to go to war with the press” over what he called an “utter violation” of his wife’s privacy.
Myers’ book, William and Catherine: The Monarchy’s New Era: The Inside Story (out March 10 in the U.S.), draws on interviews with former aides and palace insiders to reconstruct the couple’s response. At the time, William and Kate were staying at the Château d’Auret, a secluded 19th-century hunting lodge in Provence. Kate, sunbathing privately, had no idea photographers were lurking roughly a mile away.
When the images surfaced, the couple’s “world came crashing down,” Myers writes. One former aide recalled that “it was as if time stood still.”
William was horrified. He immediately contacted his father, King Charles, and grandmother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, making clear his intention to sue Closer “all the way.” According to Myers, William felt a deep personal responsibility, questioning whether he had previously been too accommodating to the media and whether a stronger stance earlier might have prevented the intrusion.
Kate, though devastated, remained calm. But William’s “anger was palpable.” Palace staff reacted furiously, drawing direct comparisons to the “dark days” of Princess Diana, who was hounded by paparazzi before her death in 1997. Aides called the publication “grotesque and totally unjustifiable” and pursued criminal proceedings.
In 2017, a French court ordered Closer to pay the couple over $117,000 in damages—far less than the $1.7 million they had sought—and fined two staffers a combined $106,000. Kensington Palace said it was “pleased” with the ruling.
Myers notes that William’s response was shaped by his childhood trauma of watching his parents’ marriage disintegrate in the media. “I will stop at nothing to protect my family,” William had warned years earlier. In 2012, he made good on that promise.
