William and Kate Hitch Ride In Friend's Chopper And Get Papped By Member of Public

Bizarre photos in the Daily Mail today of William and Kate walking away from a helicopter which has just given them a lift 200 miles from their Welsh farmhouse to London.

But hang on a minute, I hear you say, I thought Kate wasn't going to be in Wales in case the baby came early?

And you are quite right. The pictures were actually taken 'last month' according to the Mail, and were taken not by paps but by plane spotters who didn't even realise that they had pics of Will, Kate and Lupo the Dog until they loked at them on their laptops some time later, and then, presumably, swifty called the Daily Mail's photo department.

A defensive sounding off the record statement from the palace says: "The flight wasn’t paid for and the helicopter wasn’t chartered. There was no cost. It was a gift, a lift from a friend."