-
The French magazine which has published topless photos of the Duchess of Cambridge - Source: Reuters -
Related
The photographer who took snaps of the Duchess of Cambridge topless was a British man living in France, a French paparazzo has told media.
The pictures were taken while the couple were on holiday in a chateau in southern France this month 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.
The photos first appeared in French magazine Closer, and later were featured in The Irish Daily Star, Italian magazine Chi and Swedish celebrity weekly Se & Hoer.
Photographer Pascal Rostain told France Metro newspaper: "The irony of this whole thing is that the photographer who took these pictures is an Englishman living in the south of France.
"These photos were taken on the orders of Closer, who asked him to sit around for several days to take them."
Rostain said the photographer did not make huge money from the images.
"For his efforts he did not earn a lot. He could have sold them for 10,000 euros. But in fact he was just paid his wages for going to take them.
"And he didn't put them on the open market either, where he could have earned a lot more," Rostain said.
The revelation comes as a Danish magazine with 16-page supplement of the photographs hits newsstands today.
French police raided the offices of Closer searching for the name of the photographer behind the shots earlier this week, The Daily Mail reported.
A French court has banned Closer from further publishing the topless photographs, and ordered it to hand the pictures over to the royal couple. The injunction also prevents the magazine from selling the pictures to other media.
Buckingham Palace has called the photo spread a "grotesque" invasion of the couple's privacy.