Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, are suing paparazzi photographers for invasion of privacy after unauthorized images of their son, Archie Mountbatten-Windsor, were released for sale in the garden of their California home, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday in Los Angeles. .
“This action stems from the tireless and downright shocking efforts of the tabloid media to take advantage of serial intrusions on the privacy of a 14-month-old boy in his own home, and the desire and responsibility of any parent to do whatever it takes. to protect their children from this manufactured feeding frenzy, “the couple said in the complaint.
Harry and Meghan said they took legal action after learning that a paparazzi agency was trying to sell Archie’s photographs and alleging that the images had been taken on a public family outing in Malibu.
“Archie has not been in public, much less in Malibu, since the family arrived here,” they responded in the complaint. “It is clear from a description of the photographs being purchased that were taken of activities in the residence’s backyard, without the plaintiff knowing.”
It is illegal in California to take photos of individuals “engaging in a private, personal or family activity, using any device, regardless of whether there is a physical break-in.” The law covering the invasion of privacy also includes the “capture of any type of visual image, sound recording or other physical impression of a person engaged in a private, personal or family activity and the invasion occurs in a manner that is offensive for a reasonable person. “
In the lawsuit, the couple described in detail a campaign of harassment of paparazzi to which they have been subjected for the past seven months.
The Sussexes said in the lawsuit that they moved to a friend’s house in a gated community in the Los Angeles metropolitan area after international media discovered the location of their Vancouver residence, where they were staying when they announced their decision to retire. of royalty. lifetime.
They lived peacefully in California for six weeks, they said, until the Daily Mail revealed their location. On May 7, the tabloid released a “world exclusive” claiming that the Sussexs lived in the home of actor and producer Tyler Perry.
According to their legal complaint, shortly after the news was made public, paparazzi began aggressive attempts to photograph them, and some photographers used helicopters and drones several times a day and damaged their fence by cutting holes to “look through it.”
“Some paparazzi and the media have flown drones just 20 feet above the house, three times a day, to obtain photographs of the couple and their young son in their private residence,” the complaint states. The couple said that the paparazzi have been waking up their neighbors and their son day after day “from 5:30 am to 7:00 pm”
As Harry and Meghan do not know the identity of the paparazzo who took the photos, their lawsuit is filed against “unidentified parties, called ‘John Does’,” according to the complaint.
The complaint states: “Through this action, Plaintiffs seek the right to make a discovery to discover the identity of those who took the photographs and of those seeking to make a profit by selling them. They also seek to put potential buyers of the photos on notice that they were taken. illegally and are not what they claim to be. “
In the complaint, Harry and Meghan said they have done everything possible to stay out of the limelight, except when it’s their job, which they admit is news.
They said the photos that sparked the lawsuit are not news. “They are not in the public interest. They are harassment,” they said in the lawsuit.
The lawsuit did not provide details of the photos, but BuzzFeed News can confirm that 26 images of Archie and his maternal grandmother, Doria Ragland, dated July 6, are available for sale on the paparazzi agency X17 website.
According to images of the house posted on Tyler Perry’s Instagram account, these 26 blurry images appear to have been taken at the residence.
“The law guarantees all California individual and family members the right to privacy in their homes,” Sussex attorney Michael Kump said in a statement to BuzzFeed News on Friday.
“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 benefit from these illegal actions.”
