Laurence Pieau, the editor of French celebrity gossip magazine Closer has defended the decision to publish topless pictures of the Duchess of Cambridge.

"One shouldn't dramatise these pictures. The reactions are a little disproportionate. What we saw in the pictures was a young couple that have just married, who are in love, who are beautiful," she said.

Pieau added: "Yes. It's a member of the British Royal family. There have been pictures before that. Two weeks ago, there were the pictures of Prince Harry that had been published by the English press. So one shouldn't be hypocritical.

"I won't hide the fact that there are more intimate pictures that exist that we haven't published and will not publish. Probably other newspapers will chose to publish them."

It comes as St James's Palace condemned the decision as "grotesque and totally unjustifiable".

In a strongly-worded statement, the palace compared it with the "worst excesses of the press and paparazzi during the life of Diana, Princess of Wales".