Prince Harry and Meghan Markle‘s aide has criticized “extraordinarily reckless” European paparazzi photographers who were found at the school of the couple’s children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.
The two photographers carrying backpacks were observed walking the perimeter and looking into the grounds by the Sussexes’ security detail and school staff. They were initially seen separately and later together, before returning to the same vehicle, leading the couple’s security to conclude they were working as a team.
The registration plate of a white van the pair were using was given to police, who established it was a rental and then traced the driving license used to hire the vehicle to a known European photo agency.
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A spokesperson for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex told Newsweek: “The decision by photographers to conduct themselves in this way around a school is extraordinarily reckless. There is a world of difference between legitimate media activity and photographers walking the perimeter of a school, stopping to look into the grounds and monitoring children as they go about their day.”
The incident, first reported by Newsweek on Tuesday, comes as Charles Spencer, Harry’s uncle, said U.K. editors and the London paparazzi culture had improved since the days when Princess Diana would regularly be hounded by them.
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Why It Matters
The U.K. press has so far exercised greater restraint, not naming Archie and Lilibet’s school, nor the location of the couple’s home following a request from the Sussex team for privacy sent to Britain’s press regulator, the Independent Press Standards Organization (IPSO).
However, the couple are internationally famous, raising the prospect international photographers could capture pictures of the children for sale overseas, bypassing Britain’s privacy and anti-harassment laws and regulations.
School Security Incident Compared to RAF Fairford Terror Scare
Harry and Meghan’s spokesperson suggested fears were particularly heightened due to the photographers’ use of the van so soon after a counter terror investigation was launched at the military base at RAF Fairford.
Five men were found parked up in vans, and there were initial fears they had a bomb, though police disposal robots found only petrol, the BBC reported. The group were initially arrested, then bailed. The saga gained international attention in part because of comments made by President Donald Trump, who said: “We had them under view for a long time, and we got them.”
Harry and Meghan’s spokesperson said: “It is concerning enough that certain European paparazzi appear unwilling to respect the privacy of children at school. But to behave in this manner in these particular circumstances, and so soon after the incident at RAF Fairford, demonstrates an extraordinary lack of judgment.
“Whatever photographs they may have been seeking, this was not only an unacceptable intrusion into the privacy of children; it was an irresponsible and ill-considered way to conduct themselves in the vicinity of a school.”
What Charles Spencer Said About Press Conduct
Spencer, Diana’s brother, told CNN’s The Source With Kaitlin Collins: “The general conduct of the press, you know, even the worst editors at the time who were paying the paparazzi to pursue Diana even into that final tunnel in Paris, they learned something years later.
“And some of them have actually confessed, they know they had a hand in her death. Now, that’s quite a big thing to live with and I think it did change the behavior, and it’s not as bad now.”
Harry and Meghan have said much about the parallels between their experiences and Princess Diana’s, with the duke saying he believes history is repeating itself. While there are similarities, including in relation to criticism of the couple by commentators, there are also some marked differences.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex moved to Britain in August, yet so far anyone looking for a window into their lives would find more photos on Instagram than from the lens of paparazzi cameras.
The incident at the children’s school yesterday is a timely reminder that the situation could change at any moment, however, so far the British press have extended the family a greater degree of privacy than Diana was afforded in the era when photographers would surround her car or camp outside venues while she was inside on private outings.
Earl Spencer’s Account of Princess Diana’s Harassment
Diana’s experiences with paparazzi photographers were not limited to the images appearing in newspapers but also involved difficult interactions in person as they swarmed around her car, fired flash bulbs at her and verbally abused her in the hope of triggering a reaction that would make for a better photo.
Spencer told Collins that those aspects had improved in modern Britain: “Well, I don’t know how the paparazzi are in California, for instance. In London, I think it’s a lot easier.
“You wouldn’t even believe the expressions that the paparazzi were throwing at Diana in the street after she cut with the royal family, the worst words in the English language, just to get her to look shocked.
“And then they would sell that photograph and say, you know, Diana’s losing her mind. But she was just reacting like a human would to being called appalling things. I don’t think that happens anymore in London.”
Spencer has separately expressed sympathy for Harry and Meghan and was asked on Canada’s CBC whether they were treated unfairly: “I don’t care how famous someone is, you cannot justify vicious personal attacks. It’s not OK. Diana suffered it. I see Harry and Meghan suffered it.”
Specifically, he cited online commentary about the couple: “I see sometimes these appalling comments under news articles from people and I think those people should be ashamed of piling in on a witch hunt, then or now.”
Prince Harry Compares Meghan’s Experiences to Diana
Harry spoke about Diana’s experiences with the paparazzi in the couple’s 2022 Netflix biopic Harry & Meghan, in which he also compared Meghan to his mother.
“To see another woman in my life, that I love, go through this feeding frenzy, that’s hard,” he said. “It is basically the hunter versus the prey.”
In their early relationship, he said dating Meghan “became a combination of car chases, anti-surveillance driving and disguises, which isn’t a particularly healthy way to start a relationship, but we always came at it with as much humor as possible.”
“Whenever we saw each other, we would give each other a massive hug and try and have as much of a normal life as possible,” he added.
Meghan had been living in Britain around two years when the couple quit as working royals and moved to America on the back of hostile media coverage and a breakdown in relations with Harry’s family.
In the Netflix documentary, Meghan said that, during their time in Britain, “I was still very much believing what I was being told which was, ‘it’ll pass, it’ll get better, it’s just what they do right at the very beginning.’ But truth be told, no matter how hard I tried, no matter how good I was, no matter what I did, they were still going to find a way to destroy me.”
Prince Harry and Meghan’s Quiet Start to UK Life
Meghan shared a series of images and videos to her own Instagram feed showing their U.K. life. The post started a guessing game on social media about where the couple were living.
Despite the online commentary, mainstream media outlets in Britain have not so far printed a location for the couple’s new home beyond reporting it is near the Cotswolds.
This is in part because the Sussex family wrote to IPSO asking for privacy around their house and the school where they are sending their children.
Harry and Meghan pulled their children out of the original school and are now sending them to a new one. Newsweek has been told names for the previous and current school but is not printing them. Other journalists in the U.K. media that Newsweek spoke to have also been given names.
There is no sign yet of any school name being published, nor of any paparazzi photographs appearing in the media.
Meanwhile, Meghan’s friend Kelly McKee Zajfen posted a batch of photographs after visiting the Sussexes at a Cotswolds pub, reported by Hello! to be The Falkland Arms, in Great Tew.
The Royalist substack blog previously suggested that Meghan had also been spotted at Soho Farmhouse and The Sun reported that she attended a Pilates class there.
The couple’s time in Britain has not been completely quiet. They have complained about some stories and won a correction from the Daily Mail over a story wrongly suggesting that they had visited two celebrity friends.
However, the flashpoints have focused on the content of what the newspapers have written about them rather than the behavior of journalists or photographers around them.
Harry and Meghan’s Experiences With Paparazzi
Harry and Meghan have had experiences with the paparazzi in the early days of their relationship and also during an outing in New York in 2023, when their spokesperson described the incident as a “near catastrophic” car chase.
The driver of the taxi they were traveling in at the time contested this, saying he did not feel in danger at any point, though he did confirm that photographers pursued their vehicle and photographed them.
At the time, images initially ran on major U.K. news sites but were taken down after complaints from the couple. TMZ ran video footage that was not removed in the days after the couple’s complaints.
The Sussexes were also photographed a number of times while living in California, including when Meghan took Prince Archie for his first day at preschool, with images running in the New York Post’s Page Six.
They were photographed by the paparazzi while in the U.K., too, before they quit, including in 2017 outside a yoga studio in London that Meghan had attended previously.
Analysis
Diana died in a 1997 car crash in Paris while paparazzi followed behind her, and in the aftermath, regulations were introduced in Britain aimed at preventing photographers from chasing celebrities. The Press Complaints Commission, which later became IPSO, also introduced rules that made editors responsible for publishing content generated through such practices, even when images were submitted by freelancers.
Newspapers that run material gained after a person was followed stand to be in breach of IPSO regulations, meaning freelance photographers are often required by U.K. picture desks to present an account of how they obtained images taken candidly in public.
That has meant a greater emphasis in paparazzi photography on revisited locations where famous people have been before, such as Meghan’s yoga studio in 2017.
The social media content that Meghan and Zajfen put online could therefore be used by any photographers who might want to track them down, including by staking out the locations they have been before.
The Sussexes have only been back in Britain just more than a month, but so far the British press appear to have kept a respectful distance from the school and home, with no sign of a return to the kind of frenzied harassment experienced by Diana.
However, the arrival of international paparazzi at the school will concern the couple and serves as a warning against complacency.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Daniel Orton, James Debens and Dave Siminoff.
Update, 09/30/2026 6:19 a.m. ET: this article was updated with comment from a spokesperson for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and additional detail, including a new headline.