After brief lapse, topless 'Page 3' women return to Murdoch's Sun

Less than a week after appearing to cave in to public pressure to stop publishing bare-breasted women within its pages, The Sun's topless "Page 3" models have returned to the U.K.'s top-selling newspaper.

"We've had a mammary lapse," a note on the tabloid's front page read on Thursday.

Inside, a winking topless model appears under the headline "Clarifications and corrections," where The Sun informed readers that contrary "to recent reports in all other media outlets, we would like to clarify that this is Page 3 and this is a picture of Nicole, 22, from Bournemouth."

"We would like to apologise on behalf of the print and broadcast journalists who have spent the last two days talking and writing about us," the paper added.

The Rupert Murdoch-owned tabloid had not featured the topless models — a fixture in the paper for more than 40 years — since Jan. 16, directing readers looking for bare-breasted British women to its website instead.

The absence of the models in the print edition came after a No More Page 3 campaign by women's rights activists asking The Sun to stop printing the photos, leading to speculation that Murdoch had ended the practice. On Monday and Tuesday, the women of Page 3 were clad in bikinis and lingerie.

"This could be a huge step for challenging media sexism," the campaign said in a statement. "We are so incredibly grateful to all of you who stood up and said No More Page 3."

Late Wednesday, after The Sun teased their return on Twitter, the No More Page 3 campaign tweeted that the fight to rid the paper of its partially nude models appeared to be "back on."

The Sun never confirmed that the change was permanent. But earlier this week, The Times of London — also owned by Murdoch — reported that the tabloid was "quietly dropping" the topless tradition.

The 83-year-old mogul had hinted that the paper might start putting clothes on its Page 3 models, soliciting feedback from readers on Twitter last fall.