THE Daily Mirror yesterday admitted it had "got it wrong" after publishing a picture of Kate Middleton taken in circumstances that she said amounted to harassment.
Lawyers for Prince William's longtime girlfriend contacted the Press Complaints Commission after using an image showing Ms Middleton glancing over her shoulder as she walked along the street.
It marked her first official complaint to the watchdog
.
Richard Wallace, the editor of the Daily Mirror, yesterday apologised. He said: "On Thursday we published an innocuous picture of Ms Middleton walking down the street with a cup of coffee.
"It was taken by a freelance photographer in circumstances where we were later told she felt harassed. We got it wrong and we sincerely regret that."
The close-up image showed Miss Middleton, wearing sunglasses, walking along clutching a takeaway cup and her car keys.
The Mirror picture is believed to be the first image used by a newspaper of Miss Middleton, 25, on her way to work since she encountered a media scrum outside her flat on her birthday in January.
Those scenes - reminiscent of the behaviour often witnessed around the Princess of Wales - provoked fresh calls for tabloids to show restraint.
Yesterday's apology appeared an acknowledgement of anxiety at Buckingham Palace that the princess's treatment at the hands of paparazzi photographers was being repeated.
The PCC said it was still examining the complaint.
A spokesman for the press watchdog added: "It's for the complainant to see how she feels about this response."
Prince William's girlfriend is said to feel she has endured "serious aggression" from some photographers in recent days.
The media group News International has already introduced a self-imposed ban on using paparazzi pictures of Miss Middleton, covering the Sun, News of the World, Times and Sunday Times.
Royal aides revealed that Prince William wanted "more than anything" for photographers to stop harassing Miss Middleton. His mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, was being pursued by paparazzi when she was killed in a car accident in Paris in 1997.
