So here’s a question – just how did the photographers who snapped Kate topless know where she was staying?

After all, the publicly available information was a carefully designed smokescreen. Journalists were told that William and Kate could not attend the closing of the Paralympic games because William was at work in Wales.

Only he wasn’t. He was, as the world now knows, sunning himself in France beside his topless wife and rubbing suncream into her lower back.

Police are now reportedly questioning staff at the French chateau where the couple were staying, amidst suspicions the pics were part of an ‘inside job’.

A criminal investigation is under way to find and prosecute the photographer - who could face a year in jail and a €40,000 fine.

A source told The Sun newspaper: 'Officially the crime scene is the chateau and its environs. This will be visited by detectives who will then have to work out how the photographer came to be there - who alerted him to the presence of the royal couple and where he took the pictures from.'