Prince Harry + Duchess Meghan
Agency refuses to release photos to the Sussexes
Prince Harry and Herzegoin Meghan
© MEGA/GC Images / Getty Images
Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan said they were followed by paparazzi for two hours on Tuesday, May 16, 2023. As a consequence of the incident, the Sussexes should now face a serious decision.
“Last night, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and Ms. Ragland were involved in a near-fatal chase by a group of extremely aggressive paparazzi,” a spokesman for Prince Harry, 38, and Duchess Meghan, 41, said on Wednesday, May 17, 2023 , a day after the alleged incident.
The relentless chase, which lasted over two hours, resulted in multiple near misses involving other drivers, pedestrians and NYPD officers. If the situation on Tuesday evening, May 16, 2023, in New York actually presented itself as the Sussexes let the public know, it should have been extremely traumatizing, especially for Harry.
Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan must draw conclusions
In order to process what happened, Harry and Meghan are said to have asked the “Backgrid” photo agency to release the material. Without success. “In America, as I’m sure you know, property belongs to its owner. Third parties cannot simply demand that it be given to them, as perhaps royalty can do,” the photo agency quoted TMZ as saying. It will probably never be fully clarified what happened in the hours after the “Women of Vision” gala in New York, and yet the drop-out royals are likely to draw their conclusions, a friend of the two suspects. Carolyn Durand, who co-wrote the biography Finding Freedom with Omid Scobie, speculates that there could be life-changing decisions. The Sussexes have to choose between a life in the limelight, which inevitably comes with paparazzi, and a much more private life, she tells Sky News.
“The Duke and Duchess want to create a compromise that allows them to live a quieter life in California, but still emphasizes the issues that are important to both of them. And I think that’s definitely commendable,” Durand said . Honorable as the Sussexes’ intentions are, their ideas are unrealistic. “They have to make a decision about what the balance is: whether they really want a life of privacy and how to balance that with the people who follow you down the streets of New York, LA or London.”
Press in the US is significantly more radical than in the UK
UK media houses’ code of conduct prohibits the use of paparazzi images obtained from car chases of any kind. A chase like the one the Sussexes said was said to have taken place in New York on Tuesday evening could never happen in the UK. But Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan have decided to live in the USA. The clocks of the gossip press tick a little differently there … It is now up to Harry and Meghan to find a way to deal with it.
Source used: Sky News, mirror.co.uk