A man has been arrested over the hacking of Pippa Middleton's phone

A man has been arrested on suspicion of hacking photos from Pippa Middleton's phone

Pippa Middleton
Pippa Middleton
(Image credit: Rex)

A man has been arrested on suspicion of hacking photos from Pippa Middleton's phone

A man has been arrested on suspicion of stealing 3000 private photographs from Pippa Middleton's iCloud account. The Duchess of Cambridge's sister discovered the photographs had been stolen when a hacker contacted The Sun newspaper asking for £50,000 in exchange for the 3000 stolen pictures.

The pictures are said to include private photographs of Pippa's nephew Prince George, as well as her sister the Duchess of Cambridge and brother-in-law the Duke of Cambridge. The photos reportedly also include pictures from a recent wedding dress fitting - Middleton is due to be married next year - as well as nude photographs of Pippa's fiancé James Matthews.

When the hacker attempted to sell the pictures to The Sun for £50,000, the newspaper alerted Pippa Middleton to tell her that the photographs had been stolen.

According to BBC news, a 35-year-old man has now been arrested in Northamptonshire on suspicion of the Computer Misuse Act. The man, who has not been named, was released on bail at the weekend.

The iCloud hackers

Jennifer Lawrence had her phone hacked in 2014

Jennifer Lawrence had her phone hacked in 2014

Pippa Middleton is not the first high-profile woman to fall victim of iCloud hacking. In 2014 a mass computer hack known as 'the fappening' leaked hundreds of intimate photos from the iCloud accounts of celebrities including Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton, Amber Heard and Vanessa Hudgens.

Later that year, in apparent retaliation for her gender equality campaign #HeForShe, Emma Watson was also targeted by another anonymous group. 'Even worse than seeing women's privacy violated on social media is reading the accompanying comments that show such a lack of empathy,' Watson tweeted at the time.

Jennifer Lawrence has also discussed the horror of having her most private photographs leaked online. 'Just because I'm a public figure, just because I'm an actress, does not mean that I asked for this' she said, 'It does not mean that it comes with the territory. It's my body, and it should be my choice, and the fact that it is not my choice is absolutely disgusting. I can't believe that we even live in that kind of world' she told Vanity Fair.

Lucy Pavia