The editor of the Italian tabloid that published topless photos of Kate Middletown is bemused and surprised by the outrage the pictures have stirred up in Britain and elsewhere.

“I’m never going to publish topless pics of the Queen [Elizabeth]. Promise,” According to the Italian newspaper, Corriere della Sera, Alfonso Signorini, the editor of Chi, quipped, according to the Italian newspaper.

On a more serious note, Signorini explained that the photos are rather tame.

“They’re fabulous photos but all too politically correct,” he said. “So middle class, sadly. If I’d had any even more scandalous shots, I’d have happily published them.”

Chi published a huge spread of 150 photographs (covering 26 pages) of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge sunbathing in a private chateau in Provence in the south of France.

Some of the photographs in question were originally published by a French publication called Closer. However, Signorini indicated that Chi printed some more “intimate” shots that even Closer refrained from publishing.

“Nothing over the top. Kate comes out of it as a modern princess doing what not even [Princess] Diana dared to do,” he noted.

Chi is owned by the Mondadori group, which is controlled by the family of former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Closer is also owned by Mondadori.

Signorini also criticized the British royal family for taking legal action against Closer.

“Legal action? What for? Lèse-majesté?” he said.

“The photos weren’t sneaked in the royal residence. They were taken from the road the terrace overlooks, from where any passerby could have seen what was going on. And since Kate Middleton is not exactly Alice in Wonderland, she should have been expecting it.

“I don’t understand why there wasn’t more of a fuss when photos of Prince Harry in the nude were published,” Signorini added. “Why should Kate’s breasts be treated any differently from Harry’s [private parts]?”