A French magazine, Paris Match, has acknowledged breaching the privacy of Prince William and his wife, Catherine, during a vacation in France this year, the latest legal victory in the royals’ long-running battle against intrusive photographers.
William and Catherine had sued the magazine, seeking damages, for publishing paparazzi photos of the couple and their three children on an Alpine ski trip last April. The couple were photographed on the balcony of a ski lodge at the French resort of Courchevel, with William holding a bottle of wine.
Kensington Palace, where the couple have their offices, said Thursday that their lawyer told a French judge they would drop the request for compensation if Paris Match published a judicial notice affirming the breach of privacy in what the palace described as a “grossly intrusive article.”
The notice, published in French in the magazine’s current issue, said a court found that the article and photographs in Paris Match’s print and online versions had “infringed the respect due to their private life and the rights the Prince and Princess of Wales and their children have on their image.”
The ruling is the latest clash between the British royal family and the French media over privacy issues. In 2017, Catherine was awarded 100,000 euros, or about $119,000 at the time, after she sued another French magazine for publishing long-lens photos of her sunbathing topless on vacation five years earlier.
William’s mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, was killed in a car crash in Paris in 1997 while being pursued by photographers, which has added to the sensitivity of privacy cases for William in France. He and his brother, Prince Harry, have both filed multiple lawsuits against publishers for breaching their privacy.
In a statement on Thursday, Kensington Palace said that William, Catherine and their children “are entitled to respect for their private lives and family time, without unlawful interference and intrusion.”
“The Prince and Princess of Wales are committed to protecting their private family time and ensuring that their children can grow up without undue scrutiny and interference,” the statement added. “They will not hesitate to take such action to enforce those boundaries.”
In 2020, Rupert Murdoch’s newspaper group paid William a “huge sum of money” to settle claims that its journalists hacked his cellphone, according to a legal filing submitted by Harry in a separate lawsuit against the company, News Group Newspapers. Neither William nor News Group has confirmed the settlement, in keeping with the royal family’s custom of settling disputes with the London tabloids privately.
Harry broke with that by bringing his lawsuits against Mr. Murdoch and other publishers to court. In January, however, Harry settled his long-running suit against News Group for asubstantial, if undisclosed amount. The settlement also included an admission that private investigators hired by The Sun, News Group’s flagship tabloid, were guilty of “unlawful” conduct in digging up personal information about him.
William has been no less zealous than Harry in protecting his family’s privacy. The prince recently taped an interview with the Canadian comedian and actor Eugene Levy in which he spoke candidly about his plans to change the monarchy after he ascends to the throne.
William did not show Mr. Levy his home on the Windsor estate or allow access to his wife or children, and he told Mr. Levy that he intended to preserve a zone of privacy around his family.
“Those who overstep it I’ll fight against,” William said. “It’s about knowing where the line is.”
Mark Landler is the London bureau chief of The Times, covering the United Kingdom, as well as American foreign policy in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. He has been a journalist for more than three decades.
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