Italian gossip magazine Chi will release 200 photos of Kate Middleton in sunbathing nude and topless in a 26-page editorial spread in their next issue, it has been reported.

The magazine editor, who has received threats of legal action by attorneys representing the royal family, has ignored warnings and instead announced the issue will arrive on newsstands in Italy on Monday, Sept. 17. 

Chi editor Alfonso Signorini said "not even a direct phone call from the Queen herself" would stop the magazine from coming out.

Daily Mail ran the Chi magazine cover photo with the headline "la Regina è nuda," which translated means: "the Queen naked."

"These pictures are not offensive or in poor taste, they are not morbid and they do not damage the dignity of anyone," Mr Signorini insisted to The Daily Mail.

"If I didn't recognize the journalistic value of what I had and if I did not publish them I would be better off in a market selling artichokes."

Chi is owned by Mondadori, the same publishing company that owns Closer. The French edition of Closer ran Middleton's topless photos on the cover of their magazine on Friday, September 14. A lawsuit has already been filed against Closer for the publication of the photos, with criminal charges being sought against the "peeping tom" photographer. However, the suits are struglling to stop the photos spreading to other publications. The Irish Daily Star printed the same photos on Saturday. 

Mondadori is owned by former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi.

Signorini admits he did not get permission from Berlusconi to run the controversial images because he makes "the ultimate decision on what appears in Chi magazine - and to be honest Berlusconi has a lot more to worry about than Kate Middleton."

French Closer magazine editor Laurence Pieaus has spoken out, defending her decision to run the photos.

"These photos are not in the least shocking," said Pieaus. "These are pictures that are full of joy. They are not degrading. Similarities have been drawn with the pictures of Prince Harry. They are not similar. These are not degrading."

Chi has a history of being controversial and was the first magazine to publish a picture of Princess Diana as she lay critically injured minutes after her deadly car crash in Paris in 1997. The tragedy also killed her boyfriend, business mogul Dodi Al Fayed. 

The black-and-white photo shows the princess receiving oxygen at the site of the car crash. Chi reprinted the picture that originally appeared in the book "Lady Diana: The Criminal Investigation," shortly after its release in 2006. Chi's publication of the image garnered a national outcry in the UK.

Princess Diana's sons, Princes William and Harry reportedly released a statement in 2006 at the time Chi released the graphic image of their mother.

"We feel deeply saddened that such a low has been reached," the joint statement read. "Despite the support shown to us and our mother's memory by so many people over the last eight years, we feel that as her sons we would be failing in our duty to her now if we did not protect her as she once did us."

On Friday,  Sept. 14, St. James Palace released a statement on behalf of the Royal family regarding the topless Kate Middlton pictures. They called the publishing of the intimate photos a "grotesque" invasion of privacy and "the worst excesses of the press and paparazzi during the life of Diana, Princess of Wales." The photos were taken of Kate Middleton as she sunbathed in a private villa while vacationing with husband Prince William. The fact that the photos were taken as Kate was in a private residence has caused a strong backlash with many saying the photographer overstepped the mark and was nothing more than a "peeping tom."

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