Harry and Meghan are seeking both privacy and publicity after being chased by the paparazzi
News coverage of the encounter, which was extravagant on both sides of the Atlantic, pointed to discrepancies in the accounts of the episode. But this time the New York tabloids made it bigger than their London counterparts, who ran pictures of the couple on their front pages but not the damning headlines.
The front page of the New York Post read “Duke (and Duchess) Hazard” and The Daily News read “Diana’s Scary Echo.”
Harry has pending lawsuits against the publishers of three London tabloids, The Daily Mail, The Daily Mirror and The Sun, whom he accuses of invading his privacy by hacking his mobile phone and using other prohibited methods. Megan won the case against the publisher of the Mail on Sunday for publishing a private letter she sent to her father Thomas Markle, who did not show up for the wedding, during her wedding.
In one of Harry’s cases, against Rupert Murdoch’s British newspaper group, Harry claimed that the company paid “huge money” in 2020 to settle claims that his journalists hacked his older brother Prince William’s mobile phone. The company and Kensington Palace, William’s office, declined to comment.
Evidence of systematic phone hacking of celebrities, royals and others has led to the Leveson Inquiry, a legal investigation that resulted in publishers ending the practice of phone hacking. They also curbed the aggressiveness of photographers who follow celebrities and members of the royal family.
While the paparazzi have shown some restraint after being publicly shamed in Britain, they still have a pretty free hand in the United States, where they have faced less of a backlash against their methods.
Mr Owens, the historian, said the British press accepted the measures because they were worried the government would otherwise impose mandatory restrictions. For the royal family, this marked the beginning of a period of relative calm in the press, which only ended when Harry began dating an American actress named Meghan Markle.
