Daily Mail royal editor Rebecca English, who was accompanying the couple on the tour, later described their contrasting reactions. She said Kate was “cool as a cucumber,” while William appeared “tired, angry, glowering” and could “barely conceal his fury” during a tea party in Kuala Lumpur. The situation was made even more painful by the timing, as the images surfaced just days before the 15th anniversary of Princess Diana’s death.
William’s Furious Response
Angered by the invasion of privacy, William issued a written statement expressing his distress.
“My wife and I thought that we could go to France for a few days in a secluded villa owned by a member of my family, and thus enjoy our privacy,” he said. “The clandestine way in which these photographs were taken was particularly shocking to us as it breached our privacy.”
He added that the publication of the images was “all the more painful” because of his mother’s death in Paris in 1997.
Justice in the Aftermath
Following legal action, the then Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were awarded around $108,000 in damages. The chief executive of the magazine’s publisher was also fined $49,000, the maximum penalty permitted under French law.
Although the payout was far less than the $1.8 million the couple had originally sought, and despite being one of the highest awards in a French privacy case, William and Kate expressed relief that justice had ultimately been served.
