William and Kate ‘very relaxed’ about unauthorised pictures

SYDNEY — The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have sidestepped a potential row over the use of unauthorised pictures of them and Prince George taken during a break from engagements on their tour of Australia.

The couple were said to be “very relaxed” about photos apparently taken without permission by paparazzi, while telling broadcasters and other media they would prefer them not to be used.

Pictures of the duchess playing with her eight-month-old son on her lap, carrying him on her shoulders and pushing him in a buggy in the gardens of Government House in Canberra during time off have been widely used in Australia. Other photos showed the royal couple, wearing jeans and jumpers, walking hand in hand near Lake Burley Griffin.

Royal aides asked British media not to publish the photographs but seem anxious to avoid controversy during what has been seen as a successful visit to New Zealand and Australia. In 2012, the duchess was photographed topless without her knowledge during a holiday in France, provoking an injunction to stop the pictures — which originally appeared in Closer magazine — being republished.

Today (April 22), the couple will leave George with a nanny in Canberra for Uluru, in central Australia, more than 30 years after Prince William’s parents went there. It will be their second night away this trip from their son. He was the focus of attention at Sydney’s Taronga zoo over the weekend, meeting a bilby — a rabbit-like marsupial — named after him.

Uluru, formerly known as Ayers Rock, is a sacred site for the area’s Indigenous Australians. The royal couple will fly to Yulara, a town close to Uluru, to visit the National Indigenous Training Academy, which helps to train those living near the world heritage site to work in the tourism and hospitality trades. GUARDIAN