Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are fed up with photographers wearing long glasses and deploying drones to capture images of them and their son Archie inside their home, and now they are taking paparazzi to court, Fox News confirmed.
In a complaint filed in a Los Angeles court Thursday on behalf of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, and obtained by Fox News, high-powered attorney Michael J. Kump states that the filing comes from alleged “serial intrusions into the privacy of a 14-month-old in their own home, “in addition to” any parent’s desire and responsibility to do whatever it takes to protect their children from this manufactured feeding frenzy. “
Markle, 38, and Harry, 35, said the tabloid harassment finally came to a head when they saw a photo of Archie being offered to the media that was allegedly taken on a family outing in Malibu when he was clearly filmed while he was in their yard, without their knowledge.
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“The law guarantees all California individual and family members the right to privacy in their home. No drone, helicopter, or telephoto lens can take away that right, “Kump told Fox News in a statement Thursday.” The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are filing this lawsuit to protect their young son’s right to privacy in their home without the intrusion of photographers, and to uncover and arrest those seeking to profit from these illegal actions. “
Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, and their young son Archie Mountbatten-Windsor meet Archbishop Desmond Tutu and daughter Thandeka Tutu-Gxashe at the Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation during their royal tour of South Africa on September 25. 2019, in Cape Town, South Africa.
(Photo by Toby Melville – Pool / Getty Images)
In January, the couple announced their decision to “step back” as members of the royal family, seek financial independence, and move to North America. The division became official in late March.
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The couple chose to live at least part-time in North America “to escape unremitting tabloid manufacturing in the UK,” the lawsuit says. Meghan is also suing a couple of media outlets there for invasion of privacy and copyright infringement.
The Sussexs were able to live quietly in northern Saanich, Canada, for six weeks, according to the lawsuit, before a British newspaper published their exact location and the hordes of photographers descended, prompting them to head to the California home. where his location was re-posted and paparazzi reappeared en masse.
FILE – Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. (AP Photo / Kirsty Wigglesworth, File)
The lawsuit says the family was forced to erect a large mesh fence to prevent telephoto photographers from taking photos of them from a ridge hundreds of meters from a friend’s home in a gated community where they have been living.
According to the complaint, the photographers became more creative in their approach to ownership and once again descended on the residence, but this time with the use of drone and helicopter cameras.
“Some paparazzi and the media have flown drones just 20 feet above the house, up to three times a day, to obtain photographs of the couple and their young son in their private residence,” Kump writes in the complaint. “Others have flown helicopters over the backyard of the residence, as early as 5:30 am and as late as 7:00 pm, waking up the neighbors and their son, day after day. And others have even done holes in the security fence. to look through it. “
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In May, the Los Angeles Police Department also told Fox News that reports of drones have been reported in areas near Harry and Markle’s home.
“Reports of drone activity have become more frequent in the surrounding area near the reported residence,” a source within LAPD relayed to Fox News at the time, noting that the force “cannot reveal who has made calls to the policeman”.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have been a paparazzi target since they moved to Los Angeles from Canada.
(Karwai Tang / WireImage via Getty Images)
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Despite the increase in unidentified flying objects buzzing around the skies in the “area near the reported residence,” the Los Angeles Police Department remained adamant that “if drone related incidents violate or not the regulations, we take all privacy issues as serious matters. “
Meanwhile, the former “Suits” actress and Harry learned that several photos of Archie were being purchased in publications, which is when the complaint says they moved to take action.
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Furthermore, the complaint alleges that such photos of Archie are not only illegal but were intentionally mislabeled given the fact that photos of any minor child taken in the privacy of their own home are illegal.
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“The Plaintiffs have done everything possible to stay out of the spotlight, except in connection with their work, which they freely admit is news,” Kump states in the filing. “But the photos in question are not news. They are not in the public interest. They are bullying. The only point to take and / or sell those invasive photos is to take advantage of a child.”
For their effort and Kump’s, the Sussexes are suing three different John Doe defendants, according to the complaint in hopes of identifying the culprit photographer and informing potential buyers that those photos were taken illegally.
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They are also ordering Archie’s illegal photos to be released immediately and for further action they are seeking punitive and compensatory damages.
Harry, the grandson of Queen Elizabeth II and sixth in the British throne line, married Markle, an American actress who grew up in Los Angeles at Windsor Castle in 2018, in an elegant ceremony observed around the world.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
