UK Tabloid Bares Royal Bride
On the lower end of British journalism, The Sun, Britain's largest-selling tabloid, is famous for its Page Three topless pinups. But Wednesday morning's Page Three is something else, reports CBS News Senior European Correspondent Tom Fenton.
The 11-year-old snapshot shows Sophie Rhys-Jones engaged in some horseplay with radio disc jockey Chris Tarrant, during a business trip to Spain in 1988. It shows Tarrant pulling up her bikini top, exposing one breast, and both are laughing.
Rhys-Jones, then 23, was a press officer working for Tarrant.
Obviously, that is not something Rhys-Jones and Prince Edward wanted to see publicized after they primly announced their engagement in January. But royal watchers say it is part of the British love-hate relationship with the royal family.
Says Ingrid Seward, editor of Majesty magazine, "People say, 'Isn't it awful? It's an appalling thing to do to a girl three weeks before her marriage.' But they still go out and buy the newspaper."
Rhys-Jones, who is about to become a royal princess, is in the public relations business but is wisely saying nothing. Buckingham Palace calls it an act of "premeditated cruelty" and says that it "is a gross invasion of privacy and not in the public interest."
But the public does seem interested.
 CBS | |
| What the tabloid published |
Speaking on his show Wednesday morning, Tarrant threatened legal action against anyone who suggested that he had been romantically involved with Rhys-Jones. And he blasted Kara Noble, his former co-worker, who took the photograph.
"Leave Sophie alone. Stop trying to dig dirt up because you won't find any. Edward and Sophie are getting married, they are a happy young couple in love," Tarrant said.
"They haven't done any harm to anybody, and there are no skeletons in the cupboard. Stop trying to destroy them before they have started their life together. Haven't you learnt anything from the death of Princess Diana?"
Turning to Noble, Tarrant said: "To the person who has sold these pictures, you know who you are. Kara, how will you ever be able to look Sophie in the face again?"
Noble was quoted extensively in two articles The Sun wrote about the picture.
The Daily Mail, quoting an unidentified "friend" of Rhys-Jones, said she felt betrayed. "She fees extremely let down because the photo was the property of a trusted friend," the Daily Mail quoted the "friend" as saying.
Noble's employer, Heart 106.2 radio, issued a statement saying it had nothing to do with the publication of the photo. "We didn't know anything about it, and we are obviously not happy about it," said station publicist Jo-Anna Milloy, who said Noble had taken time off.
British television was reporting Wednesday that Noble had been fired.