Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Senior royal sells pictures of baby to magazine for six-figure sum

London: Queen Elizabeth II's grandaughter Zara Tindall has sold exclusive photographs of her new born daughter Mia to a magazine for over 100,000 pounds, a move that may irk Britain's monarch.

The Queen's granddaughter is the most senior member of the Royal family to sell the rights to the first portraits of their child, and signed the deal despite previous denials that she intended to make money from the birth, The Telegraph reported.

Pictures of 32-year-old Zara with her husband Mike and their daughter appear on the front cover of this week's Hello! and across 13 pages inside.

In an accompanying interview, Zara talks publicly for the first time about giving birth, disclosing that she had an epidural.
Buckingham Palace declined to comment on whether the Queen had been consulted about the coverage or even informed in advance that the deal had been done for pictures of the 16th in line to the throne.

But when Zara Phillips, as she was then, married Mike Tindall in 2011, she was reportedly frustrated at being told by Buckingham Palace she could not sell pictures of the wedding to Hello!.

When her brother Peter Phillips sold pictures of his wedding to Autumn Kelly in 2008 to Hello! for a reported 500,000 pounds, palace aides let it be known that the Queen was not happy with the decision, the report said.

On that occasion, the Queen and other members of the Royal family were angry that their attendance at the wedding had become a selling point for the 20 pages of photographs that appeared the following week.

The pictures of Mia would not have commanded such a high fee, as they do not include other members of the Royal family, though the couple are understood to have received more than 100,000 pounds, the report said.

The photographs were taken two weeks ago. Since Mia was born on January 17, Tindalls have been careful not to be pictured in public with their daughter, apart from on one occasion when the new mother was photographed pushing a pram.

The Hello! pictures were taken at the couple's home on the Princess Royal's Gatcombe Park estate in Gloucestershire.

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