Defending Kate

I don't know about you but I'm furious that someone photographed the Duchess of Cambridge naked, and that a magazine published the pictures. Kate is someone who has worked hard to do everything right and with royal dignity.  She has every right to sunbathe topless at a very private and remote villa in the South of France.

Obviously this brings back shades of Princess Diana, hounded to her death by paparazzi  Clearly royals are public figures and as such cannot expect the same degree of privacy as the rest of us. Every time they go out they are fair game and their behavior is on display to be judged. But in the privacy of their own home? No way. What will be next..super long distance lenses catching them in the bathroom or bedroom?

This comes after the Prince Harry scandal, again pictures of him at a private party, in a private suite, leaked by someone at the party, obviously for mucho bucks. He wasn't very wise, I agree, but he is a young single man and at the time he wasn't on official royal business. In fact we now know he was getting ready to fly back to duty in Afghanistan with his regiment, where he will be facing danger daily flying Apache helicopters. So he had a good reason to let his hair down.

This sort of thing didn't happen to royals at the time I write about in my Royal Spyness series. Although the press knew about the affair between the Prince of Wales and Mrs. Simpson they were asked by the palace not to mention it. So it didn't become public knowledge until he announced his intention to marry her. They remained silent for several years while Edward pursued her more and more openly (or rather she pursued him). Can you imagine any newspaper doing that these days?

Why do we feel we have a right to own celebrities? I know that A list people like Tom Hanks can never eat out, walk through a park, go to a movie without being mobbed. Fame comes at a hard price.
Writers like me experience this in a small way when we go to signings and conventions. It's not easy to be standing in line for the rest room and have the person next to me say loudly, "I just love your books. When is the next one coming out?" when all I'm thinking about is the need to pee.


So I feel for poor Kate. In fact I think it's about time the royals employed bodyguards who were instructed to shoot to kill invaders of privacy. What do you think?