Prince Harry drops complaint over nude photos

Prince Harry has dropped a formal complaint against editors at a U.K. newspaper for publishing naked photos of the British royal from his scandalous Las Vegas holiday.

The third-in-line to the throne hit headlines around the world in August (12) when he was pictured cavorting nude with a girl in his luxury hotel suite in Sin City.

The Sun was the only U.K. newspaper to ignore advice from the country's media watchdog, the Press Complaints Commission (PCC), not to run the shots, and the images were printed in the tabloid days after they surfaced online.

The bold move prompted the Prince, who has since begun active military service on the frontline in Afghanistan, to file a formal complaint with the PCC, but he has now chosen to drop the case.

A spokesperson for royal residence St James's Palace says, "We remain of the opinion that a hotel room is a private space where its occupants would have a reasonable expectation of privacy. Prince Harry is currently focused entirely on his deployment in Afghanistan, so to pursue a complaint relating to his private life would not be appropriate at this time and would prove to be a distraction."

Prince Harry isn't the only member of the royal family to suffer a naked photo embarrassment - his sister-in-law, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, was captured sunbathing topless in early September (12) during a short vacation in Provence, France.

She and her husband Prince William filed a breach of privacy lawsuit against the owners of Closer, the French magazine which first printed the images, and won an injunction against them barring further publication of the snaps, which have since run in several other European publications.