Britain’s top-selling newspaper apologized yesterday for publishing a photo of a bare-breasted royal bride-to-be Sophie Rhys-Jones after Buckingham Palace howled in protest.
The 10-year-old photo of TV personality Chris Tarrant clowning around and yanking the bikini top off Rhys-Jones – who’s to wed Prince Edward next month – wound up on the front page of The Sun.
“It’s clear to me that we have caused her great distress,” Sun editor David Yelland said. “I have, therefore, decided to apologize to her and the palace. I believe this is the right thing to do.
“No more topless pictures of Miss Rhys-Jones will appear in The Sun. I wish her and Prince Edward the very best, although I don’t expect to be invited to the wedding.”
Buckingham Palace had called the photo’s publication “premeditated cruelty.”
The 34-year-old royal fiancee was reportedly beside herself, saying the scandal would ruin her wedding.
“This has ruined my engagement. This [wedding] was supposed to be the happiest day of my life,” the Daily Mail quoted Rhys-Jones as saying.
The Daily Mail said future groom Edward was “totally disgusted and livid.”
Edward and his Diana lookalike are due to wed at Windsor Castle on June 19.
Kara Noble, who used to work with Rhys-Jones, took the photo and sold it to The Sun for as much as $400,000, after an intense bidding war among several of the tabs.
After the revelation, Noble was fired from her job at a radio station.
Rhys-Jones and her future royal in-laws weren’t the only ones who were not amused.
Prime Minister Tony Blair condemned the publication of the picture, and said the palace had complained to the Press Complaints Commission.
Still, The Sun’s page raised fears of a new tabloid offensive on the royals, who have been left alone since the death of Diana nearly two years ago.
The Sun is owned by News Corp., which also publishes The Post.