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Duchess Kate's sister reportedly hacked, with thousands of personal photos stolen

Thousands of personal images, including some of Britain's royal family, were reportedly stolen in a hack of Pippa Middleton's iCloud account.
/ Source: TODAY

There's been some unfortunate news for Kensington Palace this weekend. Thousands of personal images, including some of Britain's royal family, were reportedly stolen yesterday in a hack of Pippa Middleton's Apple iCloud account.

According to British news outlets, Middleton, the soon-to-be-wed younger sister of Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, claims to have had up to 3,000 personal photos stolen. The images include intimate images of her fiance, financier James Matthews, glimpses of her wedding dress fittings, and even some private family moments with her nephew and niece, Prince George and Princess Charlotte.

The stolen collection of photos has reportedly already been offered to media outlets for some 50,000 euros (roughly $65,000), but royal expert Neil Sean told TODAY he thinks that Middleton will handle the breach of privacy "very well."

"The royal family media team should really swoop in and deal with this very public embarrassment," he said.

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The royal hacking comes just days after Middleton told the Daily Mail that she's developed "something of a thick skin" since first stepping into the public eye, but that the process has been "quite hard" to manage.

Back in 2014, she sat down with Matt Lauer for her first television interview, and expressed the trials and tribulations that come with sacrificing privacy in lieu of adopting a public image.

"It's been a bit difficult, yeah. It's getting used to sort of not being entirely private and sort of feeling that wherever I go someone may spot me and for good or bad, it just means I don't entirely relax."

Unfortunately, Middleton is not alone. On Thursday, Yahoo revealed that at least 500 million user accounts were compromised back in 2014 by a state-sponsored actor in a breach tied to Russia.

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Other victims include first lady Michelle Obama, whose passport was posted online earlier this week by DC-Leaks, a site that U.S. officials believe is tied to Russian intelligence; and the Democratic National Committee, which also endured a hack — most likely at the hands of Russian cyber criminals.

As for Apple's vulnerability in recent years, in 2014, stars including Jennifer Lawrence and Kate Upton also had private photos stolen from iCloud in a major cyber hack on Hollywood.

British police and Scotland Yard are currently investigating the cyber attack on Middleton.