Reading Time: 2 minutes
When Prince Harry and Meghan Markle returned to the UK after living in the US for six years, many wondered how long it would take for the couple’s old security fears to resurface.
Now, sadly, we have our answer.
Yes, it seems that Harry and Meghan are already dealing with another privacy headache — and this time, their children are at the center of it.
Harry and Meghan’s children, Prince Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, 5, were reportedly targeted by photographers while attending school in the English countryside, according to a statement from the couple’s spokesperson.
The incident comes just weeks after the family returned to the United Kingdom from California, with Harry and Meghan making a major effort to keep the location of their new home and their children’s school private.
Apparently, those efforts have been insufficientt to keep the media hounds at bay.
According to Harry and Meghan’s spokesperson, photographers recently walked around the perimeter of the children’s new school before stopping to look into the school grounds and monitor Archie and Lilibet.
“The decision by photographers to conduct themselves in this way around a school is extraordinarily reckless,” the rep said this week (via Reuters).
The statement also took aim at “certain European paparazzi” who allegedly appear unwilling to respect the privacy of children while they’re at school.
“There is a world of difference between legitimate media activity and photographers walking the perimeter of a school, stopping to look into the grounds and monitoring children as they go about their day,” the spokesperson added.
The family has already experienced security concerns since returning to England. Archie and Lilibet previously changed schools after heavy traffic along the route to their original school raised concerns for their security team.
Harry and Meghan, who stepped down as senior working royals in 2020, currently rely on private security. Harry has also been fighting for government-provided police protection for his family in the United Kingdom.
And there’s an obvious reason this particular issue hits close to home for Harry.
His mother, Princess Diana, died in a 1997 car crash after the vehicle she was traveling in was pursued by paparazzi. Harry has frequently spoken about the impact of his mother’s death and has compared the media treatment of Meghan to what Diana experienced.
Now, he’s watching his own children become the focus of unwanted attention.
The situation also comes with an awkward royal-family footnote: Harry’s brother, Prince William, has faced similar issues with European paparazzi and has previously won privacy cases involving unauthorized photographs of his family.
For Harry and Meghan, however, the message appears to be pretty straightforward: Whatever interest exists in their famous family, they don’t want it following Archie and Lilibet through the school gates.
Hopefully, the media will receive that message loud and clear.
