Prince Harry and Meghan Markle should at some point "back off" from their persistent battles with the U.K. media because they are not doing themselves "any favors," a prominent royal biographer has told a new episode of Newsweek's The Royal Report podcast.
Author of the soon-to-be-released George VI and Elizabeth: The Marriage That Shaped the Monarchy and biographer of Princess Diana, Sally Bedell Smith, told chief royal correspondent Jack Royston that Harry and Meghan have been "entwined with their own media outlets," such as Netflix and Spotify, building and maintaining relationships in much the same way the royals have been accused of doing.
Since 2019, both Harry and Meghan have launched a series of lawsuits against the U.K. tabloid media, including publishing giants Associated Newspapers Limited whose titles include the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday and MailOnline.
Harry is currently in London, where he has attended hearings connected with his ongoing lawsuit with ANL over allegations of phone-hacking, wiretapping and bugging which date between 2001 and 2013. The publisher has denied the claims and is seeking to have the case thrown out as the incidents of alleged unlawful information gathering occurred more than the six-year threshold ago.
Harry is also in a separate ongoing libel lawsuit with ANL over a story published by the Mail on Sunday in 2022 over his battle with the U.K. Home Office over the removal of his state funded bodyguards.
Speaking about the cases, and any beneficial outcome for the prince, Bedell Smith said: "I don't see any particular reputational damage if they [ANL] lose. I mean, obviously the reporter who did the piece [...] may suffer, which would be unfortunate."
In 2021, Meghan won her legal battle against ANL over copyright infringement when the publisher released extracts of a 2018 letter she wrote to her father, Thomas Markle. The duchess won the case but was awarded just £1 ($1.23) in symbolic damages.
"The decision was probably correct," Bedell Smith said of Meghan's win. "But at the same time, during that period, both Harry and Meghan were very entwined with their own outlets in the media, and they were playing the game that Harry described both in the Netflix documentary and his book, and I'm not sure that they weren't doing much of the same thing that the royal family may or may not have been doing."
Since leaving the royal family, Harry has spoken out about his family members' "invisible contract" with the press, which infers that the more access they give the better coverage they receive. He also alleged that some royals, namely his stepmother Queen Camilla, fed the media stories about him to boost their own public image.
"They have to deal with the reporters," Bedell Smith said of Harry and Meghan. "And they have to have a good relationship with them. I've been on trips and have watched how it works and there's a lot of give and take. And many of the reporters that Harry has derided are very good reporters. They check their sources. They don't rush into print.
"So, I mean I think they [Harry and Meghan] should just at some point back off. Obviously, these cases will be resolved in one way or another, but I don't think Harry and Meghan are doing themselves any favors by constantly battling with the British media."
Bedell Smith is not alone in this viewpoint. In his Netflix series, released in December 2022, Harry recounted a conversation he had with King Charles about the media's treatment of himself and Meghan. In it, Charles appeared to question what positive outcome challenging the media could have.
"My dad said to me, 'Darling boy, you can't take on the media. The media will always be the media,'" the prince explained before adding: "I said, 'I disagree.'"
Harry's lawsuits with ANL are ongoing, he is also involved with legal claims against News Group Newspapers, publishers of The Sun and defunct News of The World, and also Reach, publishers of the Daily Mirror, over historic cases of phone-hacking.
George VI and Elizabeth: The Marriage That Shaped the Monarchy by Sally Bedell Smith is available in the United Kingdom on April 13, published by Penguin Michael Joseph.
James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek's royal reporter based in London. You can find him on Twitter at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.
Do you have a question about King Charles III, William and Kate, Meghan and Harry, or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email royals@newsweek.com. We'd love to hear from you.
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James Crawford-Smith is a Newsweek Royal Reporter, based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on the British royal family ... Read more
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