If there’s one thing the British royal family has been good at dealing with, it’s scandal.
Years and years of it.
With the recent publication of nude photos of Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, by French magazine Closer, Kate Middleton is the latest to join the cursed club.
While the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, both 30, have since taken legal action against the French publication, an Irish newspaper has gone on to release the photos, taken during the couple’s recent getaway to Provence, France. An Italian magazine has also joined in on the scandalous fanfare, announcing on Saturday its plans to publish a 26-page special edition of the couple’s vacation.
The palace has declared that the photos have invaded the Duke and Duchess’ privacy “in such a grotesque and totally unjustifiable manner.”
Middleton is not alone on the nude photo front. Just weeks before, Prince Harry made the scandal list (and it wasn’t his first time), thanks to nude photos leaked from his VIP party in Las Vegas.
The young royals are slowly, but surely, taking over a scandal record long held by the likes of Sarah Ferguson, Prince Charles and King Edward VIII.
What other scandals have rocked the royal family over the years?
In 1936, forbidden to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson, King Edward VIII got hitched to his one true love anyway, and gave up his place on the throne.
Princess Margaret and her husband Antony Armstrong-Jones had mutual and very public affairs with other parties for several years, before finally filing for divorce in 1978.
Sarah Ferguson, hardly a stranger to British royal scandals, made big headlines in 1992 when she was photographed in a compromising situation (toes) with American financier John Bryan.
Since news broke of Middleton’s nude photo scandal, the palace has released a number of statements on the matter, including one that has reminded all about the danger and vulnerability that comes with being a member of the royal family.
“The incident is reminiscent of the worst excesses of the press and paparazzi during the life of Diana, Princess of Wales, and all the more upsetting to The Duke and Duchess for being so,” a palace spokesperson said on Friday.
Click through the gallery above for 26 scandals that have rocked the British royal family.
