The photographer that snapped Kate topless is Irish, apparently

The magazine featuring pictures of Kate Middleton topless might have been French, but it turns out an Irishman had a big part to play in one of the biggest royal scandals of recent times.

In case you’ve been living under a rock this past fortnight, the Duchess of Cambridge was snapped with her bits on display while on holiday with hubby William in France recently, the photos appeared in French magazine Closer and soon went worldwide, causing an international scandal in the process.

It turned out to be a particularly big deal in Ireland as the publication of the photos in the Irish Daily Star caused uproar both here and across the water and for a while, it looked as if the paper might be shut down because of it.

If publishing the photos in an Irish paper wasn’t bad enough, it turns out that it could well have been an Irish photographer responsible for taking the photos of Kate’s admittedly impressive bare upper body after all.

French photographer Pascal Rostain told the Irish Sun: In our small paparazzi world we know who it is but obviously don’t say anything. I can just say it is an Irish national who lives in the south of France.”

Rostain added that the mystery Irishman in question stood to make quite a pretty penny from the controversial pics as well.

“It can be €1,000 a day for every working day plus expenses and a few thousand euro for the snaps,” he added.

If the photographs had not been commissioned, however, Rostain said that the photographer could have offered them to celebrity magazines “for a few hundred thousand euro”.

That seems to be the going rate for topless snaps these days, but we'll ask Rosanna Davison just to double check (just kidding Rosanna).