Topless Kate Middleton photos: Have tabloids finally gone too far?

The British royals can't seem to get a break. Just weeks after snapshots from Prince Harry's naked escapades in Vegas hit the tabloids, a French magazine has published topless photos of Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge. St. James' Palace confirmed that the images were genuine, taken apparently with a telephoto lens while Middleton and her husband, Prince William, were sunbathing on vacation at a relative's chateau in southern France. A spokesman for the royal family said the Duke and Duchess were "hugely saddened" that the publication, Closer, had "invaded their privacy in such a grotesque and totally unjustifiable manner." Middleton and Prince William are reportedly suing Closer for invasion of privacy. The magazine's editor, Laurence Pieau, defended the decision to run the images, saying they're "not in the least shocking." Is the fuss overblown, or has the tabloid press stepped over the line this time?

This is taking invasion of privacy too far: Prince Harry's naked billiard game with strangers... well, he should have seen that one coming, says Steven Baxter at New Statesman. "Kate, on the other hand, is not being drunk, not partying" — she's just sharing a private moment with her husband. This shocking invasion of her privacy has all the pervy "hallmarks of the worst excesses of the paparazzi: The sneaking in bushes, the enormous long lenses, the grainy photos." Even the trashy tabloid press should be ashamed this time.

"The Kate Middleton topless photos are the grossest invasion of privacy"

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Wake up. Celebrities have no privacy: "We can only imagine how much it sucks" for Kate that these pictures are "being ogled at by people all over the world," says Sabrina Rojas Weiss at VH1. Honestly, though, in this "age of high-tech photography and spying equipment, can a famous person" ever expect privacy? It's unfair to blame the victim, but now that she's a royal, Kate is going to have to decide between tan lines and over-exposure. There is no third option.

"Kate Middleton topless photos prove there is no longer such a thing as privacy"

Kate should brace for the treatment Diana got: These photos aren't just invasive. In France, which has strict privacy laws, they're probably illegal, says Judith Welikala at TIME. Of course, that never stopped the paparazzi from hounding William's mother, Princess Diana. After Diana died in 1997 — in a car that crashed, in France, with paparazzi in pursuit — her brother, the Earl of Spencer, called her "the most hunted person of the modern age." It looks like "Kate has taken her place."

"Topless Kate Middleton photos published by French magazine"