It seems like Kate Middleton can't catch a break.

It started with the French Closer magazine publishing a dozen shots of Middleton as she slipped off her bikini top, relaxed on a sun lounger and at one point pulled down the back of her bikini bottoms as William rubs sun cream on her. The photos were of her topless.

The photos spread to numerous publications, like Chi magazine of Italy and Irish Daily Star.

So who was the photographer?

According to the Daily Mail, the photographer was British.

French paparazzo Pascal Rostain said the the Royal couple were staked out at the chateau while on their holiday by an Englishman living in the south of France.

Rostain also sensationally claimed that the photographer was spying on them on the orders of France's Closer magazine, which was first to publish 13 intimate images of Kate and William last week.

He told France Metro newspaper in Lyon, "The irony of this whole thing is that the photographer who took these pictures is an Englishman living in the south of France.

"These photos were taken on the orders of Closer, who asked him to sit around for several days to take them.

"For his efforts he did not earn a lot. He could have sold them for 10,000 euros.

"But in fact he was just paid his wages for going to take them.

"He didn't put them on the open market either, where he could have earned a lot more."

Two other magazines picked up the photos and are now publishing them.

The Daily Mail reported that a Swedish magazine published the photos today (Sept. 20).

According to CBC.ca, Sweden's Se & Hor's editor said that she doesn't see the big deal with nude photos.

"It is nothing new to us to publish nude photos of celebrities on holiday," said Carina Lofkvist, the chief editor of the Swedish magazine.

She said actresses Demi Moore and Sharon Stone and model Kate Moss have previously appeared half-naked in the magazine.

"No one complains when they do and we print the photos," Lofkvist said.

Sister publication Se & Hoer in Denmark will publish over 60 photos in a 16-page supplement Friday, according to the Daily Mail.

These magazines are not afraid of legal action despite what happened to the French Closer magazine.

The photos have already been widely published in French magazine Closer, the Irish Daily Star, and Chi magazine, an Italian gossip magazine.

Reports recently said that police raided the headquarters of the Closer magazine, which was the first publication to reveal the photos.

According to the Daily Mail, officers arrived at the Closer building in Paris at 10am, with detectives confirming they were looking for information 'which might lead to the identity' of the paparazzi responsible.

The investigation was launched by prosecutors in the French capital on Monday.

According to CNN, the French Closer magazine has been fined and ordered not to distribute the magazine in print or online, a French court ruled Tuesday.

The court ordered Closer magazine to hand over the original photos to the royal family within 24 hours of the ruling and to pay them 2,000 euros (about $2,600).

The magazine must pay a further 10,000 euros (about $13,100) a day if it is late in handing over the photos.

Middleton and her husband, Prince William, the second in line to the throne, "welcome the injunction that's been granted. They always believed the law was broken and that they were entitled to their privacy," the palace said.

"These snapshots which showed the intimacy of a couple, partially naked on the terrace of a private home, surrounded by a park several hundred meters from a public road, and being able to legitimately assume that they are protected from passers-by, are by nature particularly intrusive," the French ruling decreed, according to FOX News. "(They) were thus subjected to this brutal display the moment the cover appeared."

When the French Closer published the topless photos of Middleton, a royal spokesperson called it a grotesque move and that it highly upset the royal couple, Middleton and William.

"Their Royal Highnesses have been hugely saddened to learn that a French publication and a photographer have invaded their privacy in such a grotesque and totally unjustifiable manner," a spokesperson for St James' Palace said. "Their Royal Highnesses had every expectation of privacy in the remote house. It is unthinkable that anyone should take such photographs, let alone publish them."

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