Prince William was "ready to go to war with the press" after paparazzi secretly photographed Kate Middleton topless while sunbathing on vacation.
The claim comes from Russell Myers, royal editor of the Daily Mirror and author of the new book "William and Catherine," which examines how the Prince and Princess of Wales have weathered the storms that have rocked the House of Windsor.
It became a lengthy legal battle for the couple — one that began in 2012 — and was a fight the future king was determined to pursue relentlessly and see through to the very end to protect his wife.
"William has always had a different relationship with the press, not necessarily as public as his brother," Myers explained to Fox News Digital. "Certainly, in his formative years, William was very clear that he didn’t want to go back to the really destructive period of his parents’ relationship, which had a huge effect on him and Harry."
"The breakdown of Charles and Diana’s marriage was played out in the media on an almost daily basis," said Myers. "As I say in the book, he [met] with a group of national journalists who were ready to go on an engagement the night before. He walked into a pub where they were all just having a drink after an evening meal and said to them, ‘We are not going to go down the same road.’"
"I think he felt that he not only needed to protect his own mental health and his own well-being, but also protect Catherine in that sense," Myers continued.
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"It’s very clear from what he said, ‘I will stop at nothing to protect my family, and you have to realize this.' Even before he had children, William’s real sense of urgency to try to make the media understand his views on that was very apparent."
In 2012, a year after their wedding, William and Kate decided to take a mini-break in the South of France. They were unwinding before embarking on a nine-day tour of Southeast Asia as part of Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee. Myers wrote that they stayed at the Château d’Autet, a 19th-century hunting lodge in the Luberon hills of Provence.
While sunbathing at the property, Kate didn’t know that about a mile away, a paparazzo was lurking in the shadows, capturing the private moment with a long-range lens camera. Soon after, Myers wrote, the couple’s "world came crashing down." They were informed that Closer, a French magazine, had published the intrusive photographs. One former aide told Myers it was "as if time stood still" for them.
Myers told Fox News Digital that from the very beginning, Kate was relentlessly targeted by the press long before she married William in 2011. But this time, it crossed a line — and everything changed.
"When you’re an outsider coming into an institution such as the royal family, as we’ve seen time and time again, it can be a very daunting prospect," he explained. "I think for Catherine, the world’s media was very keen to know who she was, who the next possible girlfriend of Prince William was."
"There was an intense pressure," he shared. "And when the relationship started getting more serious, there were obviously questions about who this new woman in William’s life could be, who the next Princess of Wales or future queen could be as well.
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"It was an uncomfortable situation to be in for Catherine. She was from a very small village in the center of England. She really hadn’t been exposed to any level of celebrity or the crazy attention that the British monarchy has the world over."
According to Myers’ book, William, horrified by "the utter violation," immediately made "frantic" calls to his father, then-Prince Charles, and grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II. The prince informed them that not only was he immediately releasing a public statement, but he would sue the magazine, taking the legal action "all the way" over the "monstrous behavior."
"Years before, William had gone against the grain when he warned the Fleet Street photographers that he would not tolerate a life of intrusion," Myers wrote. "This time, he was ready to go to war with the press."
Myers described Kate as deeply upset over the incredible invasion of privacy, but kept busy immersing herself in royal duties to support the monarchy. To the public, Kate smiled and shook hands, never letting anyone in on how hurt she was. Palace insiders told Myers they were impressed by how she displayed "a quiet reassurance," appearing calm and in control.
But William, whose "anger was palpable," appeared to be "under unimaginable stress," as he demanded to be kept informed of every action being taken by his lawyers. Days later, the Italian magazine Chi published the images, as well as the Irish version of the British Daily Star.
"Palace staff reacted furiously, suggesting the clock had been turned back 15 years to the dark days of Princess Diana being hounded to her death by the paparazzi," Myers wrote.
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"Aides, describing the publication as ‘grotesque and totally unjustifiable,’ said the couple were ‘livid’ and felt ‘violated,’ and would pursue full criminal proceedings."
According to the book, William instructed his lawyers to pursue the most serious damages possible, which would be donated to charity.
"Sources close to the prince suggest he felt a deep sense of personal responsibility over the issue, questioning whether he had offered too much of his life to the press, and whether the event would have happened if he had previously taken a stronger stance with the media," Myers wrote.
Closer stood their ground after the palace immediately sued.
"The photographs we have selected are by no means degrading," the magazine said in a statement, as quoted by The Standard. "They show a beautiful, in love, modern holidaying young couple in their normal life. The article reports on the couple’s recent stay in the South of France."
In 2017, a judge ordered the French outlet to pay the couple €100,000 [$117,892.55] in damages — far less than the roughly €1.5 million [$1.7 million] they had sought — and fined two staffers a combined €90,000 [$106,077.60], Vogue.com reported. Kensington Palace was "pleased" by the ruling, the outlet reported.
The ruling was no doubt a warning to other tabloids that William will always protect Kate, no matter the cost.
"[At the beginning of the relationship], she felt, ‘If I’m going to put myself forward for something like this, then I not only need the support of William, but also the support of the institution,’" Myers told Fox News Digital. "And as I tell in the book, William was absolutely integral to that, to say to her, ‘I will support you,’ and to have the mechanism of the palace supporting her as well."
"You can certainly argue, and I’m sure that Prince Harry has felt like this, that Meghan [Markle] didn’t get that support early in their relationship," said Myers. "He can rightly feel aggrieved at that, because I think, when you’re looking at the heir and the spare, certainly there were differences afforded to Catherine that were not afforded to Meghan at the time."
Today, the Prince and Princess of Wales are proud parents of three children as they support King Charles III, who ascended to the throne in 2022.