William Won’t Tolerate Media ‘Crossing the Line’ With Kate as He Vowed to ‘Protect Her’
In his book, royal author Robert Jobson detailed Prince William's commitment to stand by Kate Middleton 'in sickness and health.'
Prince William and Kate Middleton have been married for 14 years, and throughout that time, the Prince of Wales has been determined to shield his wife from the relentless media intrusion he experienced as a child. According to royal author Robert Jobson, William believes it is his duty to protect Middleton, a stance he reportedly made clear at the very beginning of their relationship. This resolve was evident during the couple's private 2012 holiday in France, when the press took compromising photos of the Princess and published them.
In his book, Catherine: A Biography for a Future Queen, Jobson detailed the Prince's commitment to stand by his wife 'in sickness and health.' He stressed that William believed "that if anyone oversteps the mark regarding Catherine...it is his duty to step in and protect her." He also suggested that William's protectiveness extended to the devastating effect the media had on his late mother, Princess Diana. He penned, "His [William's] stance was clear from the start of their relationship: he would not tolerate the media crossing the line." However, this would be "tested to the limit" during the royal couple's private trip to France, during their 2012 Malaysia tour, when Closer published photos of Middleton in a state of undress and the focus of the tour 'flipped' overnight.
At the time, the royal tour had begun on a positive note, with the Princess delivering her first overseas speech at Hospis Malaysia. The speech, which she wrote herself, was widely acclaimed. However, as Jobson noted, the "media focus of the tour flipped" when the topless photos became public. Daily Mail royal editor Rebecca English, who was on that tour, later described the couple's very different reactions to the leak. She claimed that while Middleton was "cool as a cucumber," William appeared "tired, angry, glowering" and could "barely conceal his fury" during a tea party in Kuala Lumpur. Adding insult to injury, the images surfaced just days before Diana's 15th death anniversary.
Furious with the privacy breach, the Prince of Wales proved his protectiveness in a written statement, saying, "My wife and I thought that we could go to France for a few days in a secluded villa owned by a member of my family, and thus enjoy our privacy...The clandestine way in which these photographs were taken was particularly shocking to us as it breached our privacy." He also stressed that the disgraceful pictures were "all the more painful" due to his mother's death in Paris in 1997.
In the aftermath of the leak, the then Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were awarded about $108,000 in damages, while the chief executive of Closure's publisher was fined $49,000, the maximum penalty allowed under French law. Although the compensation was among the highest ever granted in a French privacy case, it was far less than the $1.8 million the couple had originally sought. Even so, they expressed relief and gratitude that justice had been served.
