User:Martinvl/succession

Privacy
A few years before she and William met, the duchess' mother-in-law, Diana, Princess of Wales, died in a road accident in Paris while pursued by paparazzi. Both the duchess and her husband are clear in their expectation that when they are "off-duty" their privacy should be respected.

In 2009, before she was married, she was awarded £10,000 damages and an apology against the photographic press agency Rex Features Ltd after she was photographed playing tennis on Christmas Eve when on holiday in Cornwall. On 14 September 2012 the French edition of "la presse people" magazine Closer publisher a photograph of the Duchess bathing topless while she was on holiday at the Château d'Autet (a private château on a 260 ha estate some 71 km north of Aix-en-Provence). Analysts from The Times believe that the photograph was taken from the D22 (Vaucluse) road from a distance of 500 m from the pool - a distance that would require a 800 mm or a 1000 mm lense. On 17 September 2012 the couple laid a criminal complaint to the French Prosecution Department and launched a claim for civil damages at the Tribunal de Grande Instance de Nanterre on 17 September 2012. Under French law, such intrusions of privacy are a criminal offence carrying a maximum jail sentence of one year and a fine of up to €45,000 for individuals and €225,000 for companies.