Two people have been charged over topless photos of the Duchess of Cambridge, it is being reported.

Sources told the AFP news agency the accused are the head of the Mondadori Group - the publisher of glossy magazine Closer where some of the shots were printed - and a photographer at regional daily La Provence.

The photos of Prince William's wife Catherine caused a furore when they were published last September, and sparked a criminal probe into how they were obtained.
Prince William and Kate The couple spoke of their anger about the pictures' publication

Judges in the Paris suburb of Nanterre charged the photographer with 'invasion of privacy' for taking images of the former Kate Middleton in a swimsuit while she was on holiday in the south of France with her husband.

Those shots were published in La Provence, but the most intimate pictures showing the Duchess of Cambridge topless and having sun cream applied by William were published in Closer.

Judges are still investigating who took those photos.

Ernesto Mauri, the chief executive of Mondadori, was also charged with 'invasion of privacy' for allowing the topless shots to be published.

French authorities promptly banned Closer from any further publication or resale of the topless images after they first emerged..