one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World. In December 2022, he was found to be the most liked member of the royal family by statistics and polling company YouGov. Privacy and the media The death of William's mother while being chased by paparazzi in 1997 has influenced his attitude towards the media. The Prince and his wife have asked that, when off-duty, their privacy should be respected. In 2005, William spoke with ITV reporter Tom Bradby and concluded it was likely that their voicemails were being accessed. An investigation under Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke concluded that the compromised voice mail accounts belonged to Prince William's aides, including Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, and not the Prince himself. However, Clive Goodman later stated that he had hacked William's phone on 35 occasions. In 2005 and after his then-girlfriend Catherine Middleton was chased by the paparazzi on her way to a job interview, William consulted Middleton and her father and penned a legal letter to newspapers requesting that they respect her privacy. As media attention increased around the time of Middleton's 25th birthday in January 2007, he issued a public statement, mentioning that "the situation is proving unbearable for all those concerned." In October 2007, William issued a public statement via his press secretary complaining about the "aggressive pursuit" by "photographers on motorcycles, in vehicles and on foot" while he and Middleton were leaving a London nightclub and later driving in his car. Following the statement, Daily Mail, Daily Mirror, and Daily Express all decided against using the paparazzi photos of the couple, but The Sun published photos taken before the couple's car had left. The statement prompted the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) to issue a warning, asking editors not to publish photographs which were taken through harassment. In April 2009, William's lawyers obtained an apology from The Daily Star after the tabloid had claimed he had "wrecked" a $2m plane during pilot training. In September 2012, the French edition of Closer and Italian gossip magazine Chi published photographs of Catherine sun-bathing topless while on holiday at the Château d'Autet in Provence. Analysts from The Times believed the photographs were taken from the D22 (Vaucluse) road half a kilometre from the pool—a distance that would require an 800-mm or a 1000-mm lens. On 17 September 2012, the Prince and Princess filed a criminal complaint with the French prosecution department and launched