Pippa Middleton photos leak: Pictures of Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge, and Prince George reportedly leaked

There are though to be 3,000 photos among the cache

(AP)

Pictures of the Duchess of Cambridge and her two children, Prince George and Princess Charlotte, are thought to be among the cache of 3,000 images stolen from Pippa Middleton's iCloud account by hackers.

The images, which it appears have been taken from an account belonging to Kate's sister, were offered to publishers by via WhatsApp anonymously.

The images include some of the royal children as well as wedding dresses and parties, with the seller wanting to sell in the US because of UK privacy laws.

The Royal family are notoriously private regarding their children's lives. The Duchess regularly releases official photographs via Kensington Palace but otherwise is fiercely protective about shielding her children from media exposure.

The alleged theft comes two years after a host of celebrities, including Hollywood star Jennifer Lawrence, fell victim to a hacker attack on the iCloud - which stores private photos from phones and computers online.

The images of Lawrence were widely shared on social network sites including Imgur and Reddit and were initially thought to have been caused by a breach of the iCloud. It later transpired that hackers may have made the most of a flaw in the security issue in the iCloud's API which enabled them to repeatedly guess at victims' passwords.

The Independent has sought comment from Apple regarding the latest leak, but has yet to receive a response.

In July it was announced that Miss Middleton would marry her financier boyfriend, James Matthews, in a society wedding in 2017.