The editor of the Italian gossip magazine which published topless photographs of the Duchess of Cambridge has warned that the royal couple have no legal redress in Italy.
Alfonso Signorini, defending his decision to publish pictures of Kate sunbathing in Chi magazine, said the images were taken from a public road by photographers on public land and were permissible under Italian privacy laws.
A special 26-page edition of the magazine, which is owned by former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, was published today despite legal action in France taken by the couple's lawyers against France's Closer magazine, which published them first.
The front cover of Chi has the words "Kate Middleton Court Scandal - the Queen is nude!".
Mr Signorini told Sky News that it was his business to "sell photographic scoops" and he was the director of a newspaper, "not a supermarket".
"I am a director of a newspaper not a supermarket, I don't sell artichokes and carrots, I sell photographic scoops," he said.
"If I had not published them I would not be paid for the job I do. Above all, I published them for various reasons, as a journalistic scoop, it satisfies the curiosity of the readers, it is first time that the future Queen of England has been pictured in such a way.
"They are natural pictures, there is no morbidity about them, there is nothing that could affect the dignity of the person involved, the Duchess of Cambridge.
Chi published a 26-page spread of topless Kate pictures under the headline 'the Queen is nude'
"Lastly, they were taken on a public road by photographers on public land. The Duchess was sunbathing on a terrace, sadly for her.
"The Italian privacy laws say that we can quite happily take pictures from a public road, of personalities, exposed places, in open air."
French Closer is run by a different company from the British version.
A spokeswoman for St James's Palace said on Saturday that "all proportionate" responses to the publication of the photos in Italy would be kept under review.
"Any such publication would serve no purpose other than to cause further, entirely unjustifiable upset to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, who were enjoying time alone together in the privacy of a relative's home," she said.
Dickie Arbiter, former press secretary to the Queen, told the Huffington Post UK the couple are taking a stand with their legal action: “You may say its shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted but I think they are making a very clear statement.
"Prince William has always been very clear about his relationship with the media; that he regards it as a necessary evil.
"It is rare that the royals go to court but you have to think about what has happened to his mother and he doesn’t want it to happen to his wife."