The Duke of Cambridge has demanded about $2 million compensation over photographs of his wife bathing topless after revealing how they had brought back distressing memories of the "harassment" suffered by his mother Diana by photographers.
In a statement read at the opening of a criminal case against France's Closer magazine, the Duke described the decision to publish the images as "particularly shocking".
![Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, was photographed topless while enjoying a private holiday in France in 2012.](/web/20170505002505im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/o/s/i/b/e/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gvxs1i.png/1493774771428.jpg)
A lawyer for the magazine countered by saying it was important for the public to know the royal couple were "getting on well".
The Cambridges are demanding a "very significant fine" for publishing the images, taken during a three-day break in a chateau in Provence, southern France, in September 2012.
The Duke expressed his anger in a statement to a court in Nanterre in Paris, where six media representatives, including three photographers, went on trial for alleged invasion of privacy.
The Duke stated that the images were "all the more painful" given the harassment linked to the death of his mother.
Princess Diana was killed in August 1997 when the car she was in crashed in a Paris underpass while being pursued by photographers, after she had left the Ritz with Dodi Fayed.
In the written declaration, read in French by the couple's lawyer Jean Veil, the Duke said: "In September 2012, 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.
"We know France and the French and we know that they are, in principle, respectful of private life, including that of their guests.
"The clandestine way in which these photographs were taken was particularly shocking to us as it breached our privacy."
The Duke ended his statement by thanking the French authorities for their support and investigation.
On top of the damages, Mr Veil called for a "very significant fine".
The images were spread across the front and inside pages of Closer alongside an article about the pair with the headline "Oh my God!"
One of the most intimate shots showed the Duchess topless and having suncream rubbed into her by the Duke while they were on a terrace of the chateau owned by Viscount Linley, the Queen's nephew.
The couple launched legal proceedings and the French authorities banned reproduction before launching an investigation. But the photos still appeared in other European publications.
On trial are Laurence Pieau, the editor of Closer in France, Ernesto Mauri, chief executive of the Mondadori group which owns the magazine, and Cyril Moreau and Dominique Jacovides, two Paris-based agency photographers.
The paper's publishing director at the time, Marc Auburtin, and photographer Valerie Suau were also on trial. However, only the three photographers appeared in court yesterday.
Suau has admitted taking the photos but said she didn't consider she had breached their intimacy at the time.
The other two photographers both deny any involvement.
Paul-Albert Iweins, representing Closer, revealed that the couple had demanded about $2.1 million and a further $73,000 from La Provence.
He said the sums were way above the French norm, saying they were the fruit of "an Anglo-Saxon reasoning of punitive damages".
He claimed the trial was "hypocritical" as "the public and private lives of the royal couple are so closely linked".
Telegraph, London