British Prime Minister David Cameron attends the UK's Creative Industries Reception at the Royal Academy of Arts.

The Duchess of Cambridge Catherine Middleton Attends Royal Gala SOLO.

The Duchess of Cambridge Catherine Middleton and President of the Royal Academy Christopher Le Brun attend the UK Creative Industries Forum at the Royal Academy in London July 30, 2012.

Kate, who was without her husband, Prince William, was attending a glitzy Creative Industries reception at the Royal Academy of Arts in London's Piccadilly to support the British Government's GREAT Campaign. Wearing a dove grey dress by designer Roksanda Ilincic, Serbian born but a graduate of Central St Martin's, the Duchess swept down the red carpet prompting a battery of camera flashes. She was greeted by the Prime Minister David Cameron, the first time the two have apparently been photographed together. The Duchess completed her outfit with a pair of pale grey suede heels and hooped Kiki McDonough earrings. 

Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, attends the UK's Creative Industries Reception at the Royal Academy of Arts.

Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge walk hand in hand from Buckingham Palace the day after their wedding.

Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge walk hand in hand from Buckingham Palace the day after their wedding to a waiting helicopter as they leave for a secret honeymoon location, on April 30, 2011 in London, England. The marriage of Prince William and Catherine Middleton was led by the Archbishop of Canterbury and was attended by 1900 guests, including foreign Royal family members and heads of state. Thousands of well-wishers from around the world have also flocked to London to witness the spectacle and pageantry of the Royal Wedding. 

On the day after the "Wedding of the Century," Prince William and Catherine Middleton, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, stroll hand-in-hand on the grounds of Buckingham Palace before they are to leave for their honeymoon.

Olympic Torch At Buckingham Palace.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge along with Prince Harry greeted the Olympic Torch as it arrived at Buckingham Palace today. The Countess of Wessex and her two children, Lady Louise and James, Viscount Severn, were also there to watch it arrive.

Cut-price Kate sports a £35 dress from Hobbs as she joins the country in countdown to Olympic Games.

Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, and Prince Harry join in a sports festival at Bacon's College to launch the new "Coach Core" program which will train teenagers to become qualified coaches and mentors. The British royal family participate in soccer, table tennis, and karate during their visit. 

Not long after Kate Middleton wears a designer dress, an affordable knock-off debuts for the rest of us. But on Thursday, she cut out the middleman and wore a discount dress right off the sale rack of Hobbs, a mid-priced British department store and label. The '50s-inspired, knee-length linen "Check Wessex" dress priced at around $60 (slashed by 70 percent!) was her sporting uniform at a pre-Olympics launch of a school program promoting future athletes. 

Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge,  join in a sports festival at Bacon's College to launch the new "Coach Core" program which will train teenagers to become qualified coaches and mentors.

Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge talks to Prince Harry as she attends a reception during a visit to Bacon's College on July 26, 2012 in London, England.

 

Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, and Prince Harry join in a sports festival at Bacon's College to launch the new "Coach Core" program which will train teenagers to become qualified coaches and mentors. The British royal family participate in soccer, table tennis, and karate during their visit.

Kate Middleton Steps Out In Olympic - Themed Ensemble.

Kate Middleton stopped by London’s National Portrait Gallery this morning in a blue Stella McCartney shift dress and a fancy Cartier necklace. Kate looked fantastic. Then again, girl could make a paper bag look good.

The Duchess was checking out the “Road To 2012: Aiming High” exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, a three-year photography project that highlights the athletes and organizers of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The best part about Kate’s outfit (besides that fact that it’s Kate’s outfit) was the subtle Olympic theme. The blue hue is similar to the shade that McCartney used in the British Olympic team’s uniforms and the circular Cartier pendant resembles the five-ring logo of the Games. That Kate is just so considerate to pair her outfits to the occasion!

Interestingly, Grazia points out that the Cartier necklace costs £49,000, or around $65,910. The bauble was most likely paid for by Prince Charles, but that’s still a lot of money! The French jewelry company didn’t lend the necklace to Kate, and Clarence House hasn’t confirmed if it’s indeed a Cartier piece. But it’s also possible that Kate just went to Topshop or Accessorize for a knockoff. She’s worn cubic zirconia earrings for a big event before, so we won’t be totally surprised if she did.

The style suits Kate perfectly, and perhaps I’ve got the wrong idea what with her wearing all this high-street fashion – after all she is a future Queen of England – I guess I’d just like to see her taking a few more risks with the money instead of playing it so safe all the time!

Fan Art or False Advertising? Marie Claire's Fake Kate Middleton Cover.

Kate, Duchess of Cambridge -- also known as Kate Middleton -- appears on the cover of Marie Claire South Africa's latest issue, smiling brightly and wearing a gauzy, multi-colored dress. But how did the magazine manage to land the princess, who famously refused to pose for Vogue just last year?

Turns out they didn't. The cover photo is a fake -- or, as Marie Claire writer Marisa Crous insists, "a fan art tribute."

Related: The cost of Kate Middleton's beauty routine

"We were so inspired by her fairytale wedding and her life as a modern-day princess, which is why we elected Kate Middleton as our cover star for the August issue," Crous writes. "But upon closer inspection, the cover is -- much like her life -- more fantasy than reality. The cover is actually a hyper-real illustration of Kate, meant to be a fan art tribute to fashion's new royal icon."

But the duchess has been clear about not wanting to be seen as simply a fashion icon. "The duchess will not be doing anything with U.S. Vogue, or any other publications for the foreseeable future," one royal aide said last year. Another royal representative told E! News: "Both William and Kate feel it would be wrong for Kate to promote herself as a fashion or style icon. That's not what they are about and they take their royal duties far too seriously to, in one sense, trivialize them."

This is the third time this month that the duchess's face has been digitally tampered with in print. Marie Claire went out of its way to be flattering, but New Republic magazine Photoshopped a set of decaying teeth into the princess' pretty smile to go with a story headlined "Something's Rotten: The last days of Britain," and the Daily Mail recently gave her an unsolicited digital makeover, complete with garish green eyeshadow.

Some Marie Claire readers feel duped by the cut-and-paste job. "She didn't actually pose for the cover?" asks one reader on the magazine's website. "How is that a good thing? Aren't you cheating your readers as well as your cover subject?"

"I'm not really a fan of this idea," another reader commented. "Will not be buying this magazine!"

Though true fans may note that the Marie Claire cover photo seems a bit off (the dress doesn't look like something Kate would normally wear, for one thing, and her hand-on-one-hip pose seems more runway than royal), the only real indication that her face was digitally added to someone else's body is a tiny asterisk at the end of a headline.

"Fashion's new royal icon wears SA's best local designs*," it reads. And, at the bottom of the cover, in barely readable letters: "Of course she doesn't. But she should."

Granted, the editors did write "Fan Art Tribute" above Middleton's maiden name, but it's not clear who the fan is, the duchess or the designers. Still, editor Aspasia Karras isn't apologizing for the cover photo, or for the other "hyper-real" images of her inside the issue.

"We have honoured her with a fan-art tribute, dressing her up in clothes by South African designers and placing her in all sorts of fun, everyday situations," she writes. The issue went on sale today.

What do you think? "Fan art," or false advertising?

Honeymoon Photos of Kate Middleton and Prince William Stir Controversy.

Fourteen months after Prince William and Kate Middleton's honeymoon, photos of their romantic vacation have been made public. But not everyone is enjoying the memories, least of all the royal couple.

Private moments from the couple's jaunt in Seychelles' luxurious North Island last May are splashed throughout the pages of Woman's Day, an Australian tabloid, and spreading like wildfire on the internet.

For the palace, it's a symbol of broken trust, and a media betrayal that resonates in the royal family's tragic history.

But for one anonymous photographer staked out during their May escape, it could have meant a major payday.

"Any shot of them on their honeymoon was going to go for at least half a million but because Kate is in a bikini I would estimate that this is a million dollar shot," celebrity business journalist Jo Piazza, tells Yahoo! Shine.

Woman's Day hasn't confirmed any details on how they obtained the photos or for how much.
According to The Daily Beast's Tom Sykes, suspicion has turned to UK tabloid photographers, blamed in the past for shirking off privacy requests for a high-profile story.

As to the delay in releasing the photos, Sykes speculates: "whoever secretly commissioned the photos then had second thoughts about alienating the Palace, and the photographer was then forced to wait out an exclusivity period before selling them."

The delay hasn't softened the blow for the royal couple, who are reportedly distraught over the publication.

'The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's honeymoon was obviously a private occasion, and we would ask people to respect their privacy," a St. James Palace rep told CelebBuzz.

Painstaking efforts went into preserving the newlyweds' privacy in the weeks after their internationally scrutinized wedding.

Not even Kate knew their honeymoon destination until the last minute, according to Marie Claire. Despite all that, the location of their beachside retreat in Seychelles North Island was promptly discovered by international press. Out of respect for the couple, and Prince William's late mother, the media largely promised to respect the couple's wishes for privacy with a "blackout" during their 10-day jaunt.

Coast guard patrols and security surrounding their $5000 a night bungalow provided extra protection from prying eyes.

But newly published grainy paparazzi photos, of Middleton in a black, skimpy bikini walking hand-in-hand with her shirtless husband on the beach, proved otherwise.

The image on the magazine's cover of the Aussie magazine shows a blissed-out couple, holding snorkeling gear, clueless to any member of the press hidden nearby.

15 additional images of Kate and Will swimming and relaxing fill the pages inside the issue.

Pippa Middleton: World's most photographed woman?

Paparazzi hiding out in dunes with long lens-equipped cameras are commonplace for high-profile celebrities on vacation, but because of scrutiny over the media's role in Lady Di's tragic death, Kate and Will have been granted more privacy.

But not everyone is surprised by the photos. "Someone was going to break it," says Piazza, author of author of Celebrity Inc.: How Celebrities Make Money. "Media blackouts rarely work. It was just a matter of who had the most financial incentive."

But is a money shot worth a breach of trust with the royal family?

"Obviously Woman's Day thought it would pay off," says Piazza, "and frankly I think that it will."

Hmmm ...... media, always want to give news of a surprise to fans and did not want to know if it is a very personal affair. By the way, look at pictures of their romantic ... they seemed to really enjoy the honeymoon and looked very happy. Hopefully this honeymoon increased happiness for both of them, Kate and William.