Prince William Slams Photogs Over Girlfriend's Privacy

This is a partial transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," January 9, 2006, that has been edited for clarity.

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BILL O'REILLY, HOST: "Back of the Book" segment tonight. We don't hear all that much about Prince William, who could be the king of England some day. He's now 24 years old. He's in the military. He has a 25-year-old girlfriend, Kate Middleton. Apparently, the British press is giving Miss Middleton a very hard time.

Joining us now from Las Vegas, perhaps the most famous royal watcher in this country, British subject Robin Leach, host of VH1's "Fame Games".

So this is another example of the British press, which is even worse than the American press, if that's to be believed, hounding a woman just like they hounded Princess Diana?

ROBIN LEACH, HOST, VH1'S "FAME GAMES": Absolutely. It's not just the British press, it's the total European press, Bill. And to describe their behavior at the current stage as criminal is still not tough enough.

They are — it's a repeat performance of the way that the last 30 days Princess Diana lived her life before that tragic fatal crash in the tunnel in Paris. I mean, she is being hounded, terrorized, tortured and tormented.

And you know, they've got squads of motorcycle guys with photographers on the back with walkie-talkies and ear pieces, as if this is some kind of military invasion.

O'REILLY: Yes.

LEACH: And the reason for this behavior, which is appalling behavior, is because the magazines, the glossy magazines of Europe, are engaged in a very high-priced circulation war. Little Katie Middleton, innocent little buyer for a fashion chain in London, did nothing more than just date the future king of England.

O'REILLY: Is she an aristocrat or is she just a regular person?

LEACH: Just a regular person, except that her father is a high society millionaire.

O'REILLY: OK.

LEACH: And he is fully with Prince William in the battle that they are going to rage in the coming days against the behavior of the press. They're going put a stop to it.

O'REILLY: In your world, she's regular person. But here in America, you know, a person who's a millionaire has got a little advantage. But Prince William is taking aggressive action to protect his girlfriend. What is he doing?

LEACH: Well, as far as I understand, he's doing three things. One is his lawyers have — his solicitors as they say in London, have gone to the British press commission and have asked them to notify all of the newspapers that they are in violation of the basic tenets of invasion of privacy.

The second thing they're going to do is that they're going to try and enforce in Britain the law that passed in the Strasbourg International Court a couple years ago, which is when Princess Caroline of Monaco won an action against the European press to prevent them following her.

The third thing is that they're going to really go after the newspapers individually and get them fined for buying photographs from photographers, making them, the actual company, responsible for the freelance paparazzi behavior.

O'REILLY: Yes, it's terrible. I mean, this young girl doesn't deserve any of that.

Now Prince William is in the military. Prince Harry is in the military. Harry, as I understand, may be going to Iraq. Is that correct?

LEACH: That's one of the things that have been talked about. And these guys are really soldiers. And they take their military career very, very importantly as part of their training for, you know, the throne of England. They're regular guys.

O'REILLY: Now people in England are enthralled with them both. They're the biggest superstars in England right?

LEACH: That's absolutely true. They are pop star royalty as it were.

But as always has been the case, just as with Diana and Charles, it's the girl that becomes the focus of the press photographers. It's the movie star syndrome, as it were.

O'REILLY: Yes.

LEACH: And so Kate Middleton has actually now outshines, because she outsells Prince William.

O'REILLY: All right. Thank you, Robin. Nice to see you, as always. We appreciate it.

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