Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are demanding privacy protections and taxpayer-funded security after photographers were spotted near their children's school in the English countryside — the same couple who built a nine-figure brand selling access to their personal lives.
Two men carrying backpacks were seen walking the perimeter of the school Archie, 7, and Lilibet, 5, attend, stopping to look into the grounds before returning to a white van, according to ABC News. They were later identified as European press agency photographers. A Sussex spokesperson called it "extraordinarily reckless" and an "unacceptable intrusion into the privacy of children."
Nobody wants photographers stalking kids at school. But the double standard is the story. The British press has voluntarily agreed not to identify the school's location or the family's residence, per a request from the Independent Press Standards Organisation, CNN reported. IPSO's rules don't apply to international outlets — but the domestic press fell in line anyway. Try getting that kind of protective blackout when the media comes for an ordinary family.
This is already the second school the Sussexes have pulled their children from since returning to the U.K. in late August. The first switch came just days into the academic term, blamed on security concerns related to traffic on the route, according to Reuters. Now another school, another security scare, another round of public statements.
The deeper game is about who pays for the Sussexes' safety. When Harry and Meghan stepped back from royal duties in 2020, the British government downgraded their taxpayer-funded armed police protection. Harry fought that decision in court for years and lost. The Home Office argued it was "not appropriate for wealthy individuals to buy protective security from specialist police officers," CNN reported. Now RAVEC, the body that decides who gets royal and VIP security, is reviewing the Sussexes' status again.
Harry has long compared press treatment of Meghan to the paparazzi chase that killed his mother, Princess Diana, in 1997. The Sussex spokesperson tied this latest incident to a recent suspected explosives plot near RAF Fairford, where British counterterrorism police arrested five men — though no bombs were ever found, the Mercury News reported. The invocation of terrorism arrests to frame a paparazzi complaint is quite the rhetorical escalation.
Reuters noted that Harry and Meghan "want the British government to provide their family with automatic police protection, as is the case for other senior members of the royal family." But they are not senior working royals. A letter released under the direction of King Charles III confirmed they are "private citizens," ABC News reported. Private citizens — who happen to have a Netflix fortune, a publishing deal, and a global platform.
The Sussexes have relied on privately funded security for six years. That arrangement apparently sufficed in Montecito. Now they're back on British soil, and the demand is for the British taxpayer to pick up the tab.
The question isn't whether children deserve safety at school. They do. The question is why two people who made millions auctioning off every detail of their private lives — and who chose to abandon royal duties and the security that came with them — now expect the public to both fund their protection and enforce a press blackout no ordinary citizen would ever receive.
