Kate Middleton's Cousin Strips Down for Playboy

Plus, see one of the shots from burlesque dancer Katrina Darling's eight-page photo spread

By Natalie Finn Aug 15, 2012 4:10 AMTags
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Kate Middleton may have to relinquish her most-talked-about-British-beauty crown for a few days.

Katrina Darling, a 22-year-old burlesque dancer from Newcastle who says she found out that she was related to the Duchess of Cambridge when a member of the press called seeking comment about the royal wedding, has made the cover of the September 2012 issue of Playboy.

The royalty-tinged issue, which also features an eight-page photo spread of Middleton's second cousin, hits newsstands (you know, up there, in the corner, behind Popular Mechanics) and will be available for tablet download on Aug. 17.

But while being a little bit related to Middleton seems to have given her career a boost, London's Daily Mail reports that Darling hasn't tried to contact her cousin or otherwise take advantage of her now-royal family ties.

"It was the most ridiculous thing I ever heard," she told Playboy of finding out she was related to the most glamorous young woman in Great Britain. "It's not every day something like that happens."

(For the record, one of Darling's grandmothers was the sister of Middleton's great-grandfather Thomas Harrison.)

Before being paid a reported six-figure sum to strip for the most storied lad mag of them all, Darling had performed her God Save the Queen burlesque show—inspired by Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee this year—on both sides of the pond.