Photos of Prince Harry engaged in a naked romp with a number of other young people in a Las Vegas hotel suite have caused a stir after being published back home in the U.K.
The Sun 鈥� a Rupert Murdoch-owned paper 鈥� became the first publication in the prince鈥檚 home country to publish the nude pictures Friday.
鈥淗eir it is! Pics of Harry you鈥檝e already seen on the Internet鈥� reads the front page headline along with a photo of the naked prince grabbing his genitals and bear-hugging a woman from behind.
The pictures circulated widely on the Internet after gossip website TMZ posted them earlier this week. The site reported the photos depict a game of strip billiards that took place after Harry and his friends invited some young ladies up to their room in Las Vegas.
In the U.K., most newspapers declined to run the pictures after St. James Palace reportedly asked that the media respect the prince鈥檚 privacy.
On Thursday, The Sun complied, but teased readers with a re-creation of the picture of the prince grabbing his privates. It featured a 31-year-old staffer standing in for the prince and a 21-year-old fashion intern standing in for the nude woman in the original photograph. The paper ran the recreation on the cover along with a headline 鈥淗arry grabs the crown jewels.鈥�
However on Friday the paper took the decision to run the actual photograph on the cover, sparking a rash of complaints to the country鈥檚 Press Complaints Commission.
But the paper defended its decision on its website, where the photos are prominently displayed.
鈥淲e鈥檝e thought long and hard about this,鈥� managing editor David Dinsmore said in a video statement posted on The Sun鈥檚 website. 鈥淔or us this is about the freedom of the Press. This is about the ludicrous situation where a picture can be seen by hundreds of millions of people around the world on the Internet, but can鈥檛 be seen in the nation鈥檚 favourite paper read by eight million people every day.
鈥淭his is about our readers getting involved in a discussion about the man who鈥檚 third in line to the thrown. It鈥檚 as simple as that.鈥�
By Friday afternoon the story appeared to be growing rather than dying down, with British public relations guru Max Clifford saying he had been contacted by two women who claimed to have more nude pictures of the prince from the Vegas romp.
鈥淭hey had lots of interesting things: pictures, video, that kind of thing,鈥� Clifford told the Associated Press in a phone interview. He said he nonetheless declined the women鈥檚 request to help with publicity, as it constituted an invasion of the prince鈥檚 privacy.
- With files from The Associated Press
