Kate Middleton proves Meghan Markle’s big paparazzi mistake



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COMMENTARY:

If you want to understand Diana’s toxic relationship with the press, look no further than a quick Google image search. There is Diana with her head on her lap in the back of a black cab; Diana running through the streets of London being literally chased by photographers; Diana dejected, stranded in the back of a car as a horde of press surrounds her.

While she may have at times courted elements of the media for her own purposes, she was generally hunted by a predatory and marauding foe to the tragic end.

More than 40 years since the shy and elegant teenager was declared the girlfriend of Prince Charles in 1979, thus becoming the number one target of London’s snappers, it is her grandchildren who are in the sights of photographers.

This week, the Italian gossip magazine Chi published a series of images of Kate, Duchess of Sussex, that are both ordinary and extraordinary in their everyday life.

Kate had reportedly been stuck in traffic on a London bridge when she got out of the car, counting her youngest son, Prince Louis, and entertained the boy by showing him the boats on the River Thames, all of which was captured by a photographer. Only the coldest hearts would not be moved by the images, Kate in her motherly element as a caring mother holding her writhing little child.

Unlike princes William and Harry, whose childhoods saw them haunted by snappers, William and Kate’s little ones enjoy a much more sheltered upbringing. That’s thanks to a kind of gentlemen’s agreement between the palace and the Fleet Street hacks not to buy or post unauthorized images of the little ones. (That kind of treatment would have seemed inconceivable before Diana’s death and the persistent public belief in the guilt of the press.)

Harry and Meghan, doing things their own way.  Photo / Getty Images
Harry and Meghan, doing things their own way. Photo / Getty Images

So far, there has been no reaction from the Cambridge people about the Chi images, nor is there likely to be based on past history.

What is most interesting about Chi’s situation is how markedly different William and Kate’s approach has been to handling press interest in their children, in stark contrast to that of Harry and his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex.

In January this year, just weeks after picking up sticks and leaving London to start a new life in North America, Meghan was caught by a paparazzo while walking with her son Archie on Vancouver Island. In the pictures, the royalty can be seen smiling and relaxed as she makes her way down the trail with her baby, two dogs, and two protection officers behind her.

Like this week’s shots of Kate, here we have two duchesses photographed without their explicit consent in public with their young children, but their reactions couldn’t be more divergent.

The Sussexes’ response was swift and litigious, with the couple’s lawyers sending letters threatening legal action over the shooting in February before revealing this month that they are now suing Splash News over the photos. This move comes after the couple filed a privacy lawsuit in Los Angeles, claiming the dads had been using drones and helicopters to take photos of Archie.

(Meghan is also suing the parent company of Mail on Sunday for allegedly violating her privacy after publishing part of a letter she had sent to her estranged father and Harry is suing The Sun, whose parent company News Corp also owns. news.com.au) and the Daily Mirror for alleged phone hacking).

One expert at least believes the family has a strong case regarding Splash’s lawsuit. Mark Stephens, one of Julian Assange’s former attorneys, told Newsweek that “I think it’s almost impossible for Meghan to lose the case given the scope of the law.”

“I suspect that what it will do is highlight, and this is probably the reason behind it, to people who are taking paparazzi photographs that there will be no financial benefit from doing it because you will not be able to sell them and you will not be able to publish them.”

To be clear, both the Cambridge and the Sussexes are clearly devoted parents and determined to make sure their children enjoy a life as free as possible from the spectrum of the press. Like all parents, they just try so hard to do the best they can.

However, what we are seeing are two totally opposite plans of attack.

The Sussex family occasionally share updates via social media.  Photo / Twitter / Instagram
The Sussex family occasionally share updates via social media. Photo / Twitter / Instagram

In essence, what William and Kate have done is establish a kind of media détente, a kind of truce so to speak. At the heart of the Cambridge approach is recognition of the great public interest in their family.

When Kate was pregnant with her first child, she reportedly looked to the example of Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden on how to balance the public interest in her baby and maximize privacy. Victoria’s thought was to regularly “feed” the press photos of her daughter Estelle on birthdays, Christmas, etc., thus satiating a curious and lovable audience. In turn, the press agreed to maintain a respectful distance.

For William and Kate, this framework has meant regularly distributing images, usually taken by her or a trusted photographer, of the children at home. Currently, 46 official images of George have been released since her birth; 35 from Princess Charlotte and 15 from Prince Louis.

Overall, this method has worked. When iPhone images of George and Charlotte buzzing around Kensington Palace on their bikes last year hit the Internet, none of the British newspapers published the rather extraordinary images. Similarly, Cambridge children often visit Round Pond in Kensington Palace’s public gardens to feed the swans and can do so without fear of a paparazzo lurking in a tree.

(That said, the Cambridges haven’t always had such an easy ride. This comparatively peaceful setting was only reached after a slightly rough start.

In 2015, the couple’s communications secretary issued a press release, criticizing some elements of the media, saying that “there have been a growing number of incidents of paparazzi harassment of Prince George. And the tactics being they use are increasingly dangerous. “

“Photographers are making increasing efforts to observe and monitor Prince George’s movements and covertly capture images of him to sell to the handful of international media titles that are still willing to pay for them.)

What William and Kate have accomplished is keeping the prying press and the public at arm’s length, while maintaining some control over how and when the media access their family.

Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle's approaches to the paparazzi are very different.  Photo / Getty Images
Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle’s approaches to the paparazzi are very different. Photo / Getty Images

At the heart of the Cambridge plan is an implicit recognition, like it or not, that there will always be great global interest in your family and that it is wiser in the long term to handle that situation than to try to ignore or combat it.

Harry and Meghan, on the other hand, seem to be constantly trying to resist exactly that.

While they may no longer be high-ranking members of the royal family and may no longer present themselves as His Royal Highness; While they may now be paying their own bills and forging a life of their own in Santa Barbara, they are, and always will be, objects of intense global fascination. No change in nomenclature is going to stop the public’s adoration and interest in them and their child, no matter how much they yearn for it.

(Furthermore, it is also worth noting that if they had resigned as front-line royalty but remained living in the UK, they would have enjoyed already established protections from the press, such as the agreement on photographing children and the fact of that the airspace over the royal residences is restricted, so there are no drones).

Harry and Meghan apparently have no intention of giving an inch and seem determined to wage a “war” to try to maximize Archie’s privacy. His fierce and fiery determination to protect his son from the nosy public is truly impressive.

If they win their battles with the media in court, they can accomplish something truly remarkable and invaluable – Archie growing up far, far away from prying lenses. The Sussex game plan could also backfire, serving to antagonize the press and confirm the price of little Archie’s head, in terms of paparazzi.

Regardless of the outcome, it seems highly unlikely that it will end the media frenzy surrounding the child’s parents.

In late August, celebrity website TMZ painted a grim picture of life in the exclusive city of Santa Barbara they now call home, reporting on “the influx of paparazzi looking for the shot.”

“The scene on the ground is quite hectic, especially for a prosperous area that is supposed to be an enclave for celebrities looking to escape the spotlight … helicopters fly over Harry and Meghan’s hood, sometimes four times a day , and the paparazzi watch over his house and a nearby shopping center. “

It remains to be seen whether Harry and Meghan’s high-stakes stance, weighed down by lawyers, will ultimately prove more successful than the Cambridges’ appeasement strategy.

This we know for sure. Decades later since Diana ducked, zigzagged, and occasionally bolted through the elegant streets of London to get away from photographers, her two children and their families are still, metaphorically at least, ducking, dodging and running from the cameras. .

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