Pictures of Prince Harry holding Princess Lilibet at a Fourth of July event have been published by the New York Post, two years after Harry and Meghan Markle bankrupted a paparazzi agency over images of Prince Archie.
The Sussexes went to a Fourth of July parade in Montecito where Harry and his two-year-old daughter were photographed together. A more blurred picture of the whole family circulated around Twitter.
The Rupert Murdoch-owned tabloid said the images were taken by "an eyewitness." They were captioned to Backgrid, a picture agency that distributes content, including on behalf of freelance and paparazzi photographers.
The same photos were also published by U.K. tabloid the Daily Mail but with Lili's face pixilated, highlighting a growing challenge for Harry in his complaints about the British media and privacy.
The royal has repeatedly accused the nation's newspapers of ruining his childhood with invasive coverage of his life and that of his parents—yet now that they have moved to America elements of the U.S. media have behaved in a similar way, though with a crucial difference.
In Britain he has the protection of European privacy laws, which the couple used to force paparazzi agency Splash into Chapter 11 Bankruptcy over similar images of Meghan carrying Prince Archie in a public place when he was a baby.
Under the Human Rights Act, British newspapers can be sued over images taken in public if they show celebrities going about their private lives.
Californian law does not afford any such right for images taken in a public place and when the Post has printed seemingly unsolicited images of Archie in the past no legal action followed.
The prince did, however, complain during an appearance on the Armchair Expert podcast in May 2021 after the newspaper's Page Six gossip column printed images of Meghan picking Prince Archie up from his first day of pre-school.
He also took a swipe at the First Amendment, triggering a backlash against the couple from Republicans—highlighting the tightrope he would have to walk if he were to take on the U.S. media.
Similarly, when the couple complained about a "near catastrophic" car chase with paparazzi photographers in New York in May, U.K. tabloids pulled the pictures—while U.S. site TMZ continued to run them.
Harry's apparent powerlessness with American outlets comes in stark contrast to his vow in January 2023 to make it his life's work to redraw the landscape of the British media.
The duke is suing three of the country's biggest media groups, mostly on historic allegations of phone hacking and other illegal practices, though with one libel case against the Mail on Sunday.
However, it is striking that even as these cases are progressing, the couple's relationship with the U.S. media appears to be growing more hostile.
While in the past, it was the U.K. press that struck a sour tone in relation to Meghan and Harry's various endeavors it has more recently been the likes of the Wall Street Journal, Rolling Stone or Variety issuing dire warnings about the health of their media empire.
American comedians have ridiculed them, a Spotify executive called them "grifters," while United Talent Agency boss Jeremy Zimmer said Meghan "was not a great audio talent, or necessarily any kind of talent."
If they want to be stars in America with the same limelight and popularity that they held in Britain, they may discover the U.S. media has more in common with Britain than perhaps they realized.
Jack Royston is chief royal correspondent for Newsweek, based in London. You can find him on Twitter at @jack_royston 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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About the writer
Jack Royston is Newsweek's Chief Royal Correspondent based in London, U.K. He reports on the British royal family—including King Charles ... Read more
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