Why Kate Middleton Pictures Are Barred in Britain

Kate Middleton paparazzi pictures published by TMZ would fall foul of British privacy laws if the U.K. media published them, a lawyer told Newsweek.

The Princess of Wales had not been seen for more than two months before a photographer got a long lens image of her and Carole Middleton in a car in Windsor.

U.S. tabloid website TMZ published the pictures on Monday in what is likely to be viewed as a gross violation of her privacy by Kensington Palace.

Mark Stephens, an attorney at U.K.-based law firm Howard Kennedy, told Newsweek: “It’s a breach of privacy essentially. It’s more difficult to sue TMZ because they’re based in America, but anyone who republishes them here [could be sued].

“I imagine they won’t and it will be interesting to see whether they are taken down from social media.”

Stephens said the photographer or picture agency who sold the image could also be sued by the palace, though aides would need to identify them first.

And he argued there had been problems of this kind for Kate before: “There’s an existing case when Kate and William were living in Anglesey, a member of the public took photos of her pushing the shopping trolly across the Waitrose [supermarket] car park and it was said at that time that she had a reasonable expectation of privacy.

“Although she was in a public place she was carrying out her private role and therefore had an expectation that what could be seen by the general public who were there would not be amplified by media exploitation of photographs. The same principle applies here.”

It is also not the first time TMZ has stepped onto controversial terrain in relation to the royal family, after printing pictures of Prince Harry naked in Las Vegas, in 2012.

They also ran video footage taken by paparazzi in New York during what Harry and Meghan’s team described as a two-hour, “near catastrophic” chase with photographers, in May 2023.

The NYPD chief of intelligence later confirmed in a letter to Britain’s Metropolitan Police that its investigation found evidence strong enough to arrest two individuals, though no one was charged.

While no British publication has yet printed the images of Kate, there is still the outside chance one will at some point break rank.

After TMZ ran the pictures of Harry naked in a Las Vegas hotel room with a young woman who was not his girlfriend, the U.K. press shunned the images for several days but they did eventually land on the front page of The Sun.

Stephens told Newsweek the palace should pre-emptively warn any wavering editors of the possible consequences should they be tempted.

He said: “You’d do a precautionary letter not for publication to the legal departments of the big media outlets and remind them of their privacy obligations so you’re basically giving them a mind how you go.”

Meanwhile, Kate’s problems were further compounded when her uncle, Gary Goldsmith, entered the Celebrity Big Brother house in Britain on Monday night.

He was immediately asked whether his royal niece would be watching, by host AJ Odudu and replied: “If she is, it will be behind a sofa, I guess.”

In a separate promo clip, he added: “She is simply perfect. First time I met William, Catherine was cooking and William said: ‘Hi, do you want a cup of tea?’ Very normal.”

Jack Royston is Newsweek‘s chief royal correspondent based in London. You can find him on X, formerly Twitter, at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek’s The Royals Facebook page.

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