Pregnant Kate Middleton looks amazing in a blue bikini on the cover of Italian tabloid Chi. The slender Middleton shows the beginnings of a tiny baby bump in the bikini photos, which were taken this week during her vacation in Mustique with husband Prince William.
The photos of the pregnant Kate are nowhere as sensational as her headline-grabbing topless photos, but it's obvious she's remaining healthy, fit and active during her pregnancy. The athletic 5-foot-10 Middleton, who played field hockey during her university years, maintains her size-two physique by working out an hour a day and eating small portions.
Interestingly, Kate does her own food shopping and cooking at the Anglesey, Wales, home she shares with William, according to Vanity Fair. Despite having servants at her disposal, Middleton, 31, enjoys cooking and often makes homemade sausage links and jars of strawberry jam and plum preserves.
Meanwhile, the holiday photos have touched off a wave of controversy after a rep for the royal family denounced the move as an invasion of privacy. "We are disappointed that photographs of the Duke and Duchess on a private holiday look likely to be published overseas," said a palace rep. "This is a clear breach of the couple's right to privacy."
Chi is the first magazine to publish the photos. Six months ago, it published a series of topless photos of Middleton taken during her Southeast Asian tour. The tabloid defended itself by saying the Mustique pictures were taken in a public place, and said the media fascination with Kate Middleton is not comparable to the relentless paparazzi hounding experienced by the late Princess Diana.
"We cannot talk about a violation of privacy when we publish pictures of public people in a public place," Chi's editor-in-chief, Alfonso Signorini, explained in a statement. "The photographs of Kate and William were bought from an international photo agency. You can't compare this with the media persecution of Lady Diana. I cannot stress enough that the photos were taken in a public place, not private property."
"Star" magazine in the United States has also published the snapshots, and Australia's "Woman's Day" plans to publish them next week. Due to royal outrage, the British media have opted not to publish.
