LONDON – Paparazzi, French media and a British royal: The publication of topless photos of Prince William’s wife Kate has reunited the same players whose clash ended with the untimely death of his mother, Princess Diana, in a Parisian car crash.

William, who has long harbored a grudge against the paparazzi who chased Diana in the days and hours leading up to her 1997 death, was clearly infuriated. The royal couple hit back with an immediate lawsuit against the popular French gossip magazine Closer, which is owned by former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s Mondadori publishing empire.

The blurry photos, called a “grotesque” abuse of privacy by royal officials, show Kate – the Duchess of Cambridge – wearing only a skimpy bikini bottom. They are the first to show Britain’s likely future queen with her bosom exposed.