He may only be six months old, but Prince George already has his very own photo scandal, after pap shots of him on holiday with mum Kate (OK, Ok, the Duchess Of Cambridge) have been published on the front of Hello! magazine and the palace haven't complained about an invasion of their privacy.
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The Middletons (minus William, who's at university, poor thing) were on their way to a holiday home in Mustique to celebrate mum Carole's 59th birthday when the pictures were taken. The photos taken are hardly that salacious – unlike mum Kate, he hasn't been caught unawares sunbathing topless and smoking while on a romantic getaway, and far from the antics of his uncle Harry, he hasn't been shiftily photographed entirely naked, save for one of those brown gap yah necklaces and a naked girl by a reveller in a Las Vegas hotel room. And he also hasn't been papped going for a wee against a fence, like daddy William once was.
But the photos of Prince George are definitely of a private moment and could have been halted if Kate wanted them to be. In what seems to be a lose-lose situation for Kate, now she hasn't complained about the photos – that everyone wants to see, whether they're rabid Royal-obsessives, dressed head-to-toe in Union Jacks, or just a bit curious – she's being criticised. Yeah, it's definitely a first-world problem, and a very specific one at that, but now people are opining that what the Middletons are doing amounts to 'image control,' basically self-promoting, by letting the photos be used by Hello! magazine – but not allowing other 'private moments' to be published.
Royal sources told The Telegraph that Kate didn't complain about the photos because they were taken 'in a public place, without any harassment or pursuit.' But a privacy expert told the paper: 'If you do permit some things and not others, it is a form of image control, as opposed to a form of privacy.'
This basically means that, in future, it's going to be tougher for Kate and Wills to clamp down on photos being taken of their son, because the paps will hold this up as an example of Kate being OK with Prince George having his photo taken. Well, at least he's really cute. There's always that. Kind of.
Picture: Rex
Follow Sophie Wilkinson on Twitter @sophwilkinson
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.