Tony Blair has urged people to let Prince William and Kate Middleton get on with their lives, claiming most of the coverage about their shock break-up would be "nonsense".
The Prime Minister called for the pair to be left alone even as speculation continued to grow about why the lengthy romance so many had expected to continue into marriage was over.
Various theories about the split have already been proposed and include Kate's background, William's army career, the Royal Family and the pressure of intense media attention.
But Mr Blair, speaking on the BBC's The Politics Show, declared that most of what was written, based on his own experience of royal stories, would be "complete nonsense".
He said: "They should be left alone now without reams of stuff being written that I can assure you, from my experience of royal stories, most of which will be complete nonsense."
It is understood lawyers acting for Miss Middleton's family have already asked for the press to leave her and other family members alone and said they will not be making any comment.
The revelation the couple were no longer an item left the world stunned because it had been widely thought they were preparing to announce their engagement.
Mr Blair said people in public life largely accepted they would get a certain amount of press attention because that was "the way it is".
He continued: "My experience of it actually is that what concerns people is not so much the invasion of their privacy as such, because I think most people in public life accept that you are bound to be a public issue and item in that sense.
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"I think it is more that usually whatever is discussed about you publicly is surrounded by a whole lot of other stuff that is either unfair or sometimes completely untrue and that is the thing that really gets people down."
