Three days in to Prince Harry and the Duchess of Sussex‘s official pull back from royal duties Harry started threatening the press again. Meghan has been papped several times since returning to Canada, and so has the house they are staying at, so Harry issued a threat to the British press to stop publishing pap photos or else he’ll sue them, I guess.
This threat was issued on January 21, the day after Harry arrived in Canada, by the same firm repping Meghan in her lawsuit against the Mail on Sunday.
A day after Harry landed on Vancouver Island, lawyers acting on the couple’s behalf sent a letter warning British news outlets that “action will be taken” if they buy and/or publish any photographs taken by photographers trailing them under circumstances the letter describes as “harassment.”
The letter said paparazzi have permanently camped outside the couple’s home and have tried to photograph them using long-range lenses.
“There are serious safety concerns about how the paparazzi are driving and the risk to life they pose,” the letter read. […]
Photos of Meghan walking with her two dogs and carrying Archie in a sling were published in outlets such as The Sun newspaper on Tuesday and aired on NBC’s “TODAY” show. News websites also carried photos of Harry landing in Canada.
The letter from the law firm Schillings said a photographer took the shots of Meghan on Monday after hiding in the bushes and spying on her. Despite her smile in the photos, the letter stated that she did not agree to have her photo taken.
NBC News
Le sigh. Harry doesn’t get to throw his weight around like this anymore. He chose to walk away from being a senior royal and has to live with the consequences of that decision. One of those consequences is that if he’s having a problem with photographers outside his home he needs to call the Canadian police and not threaten the British press. Another consequence is that if you’re out in a public park, there is no expectation of privacy, and these photos of Meghan are legal.
If Harry had stayed a senior royal and continued to live full time in the UK, these pap photos of Meghan wouldn’t have been published. When was the last time we actually saw real pap photos of Meghan published by the British press prior to this year? It’s been a long time, right? I know I was absent from blogging for a while, but the last pap photos I remember seeing of Meghan were right before the engagement was announced in November 2017.
Yet now in 2020 we’ve had four different pap sightings with two weeks: the National Theatre ones; the sea plane ones; the airport ones; and the park ones.
Honestly, Harry got almost everything he wanted out of his deal with the Royal Family, he’s not riding off into the sunset to be a private individual (in which case his complaints here would be completely valid), he’s riding off to be a commercial deal-taking global celebrity, so I have no patience for his whining about these photos. Call the Vancouver Island police and let them handle the press outside the house (which I agree is creepy), and stop issuing warnings to the British press.
