Prince Harry wanted to protect his wife Meghan Markle and one-year-old son Archie Harrison by granting them as much privacy as possible, Marlene Koenig said. However, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s plans appear to have backfired following their move to the US, according to the royal expert.
The US royal historian wrote on her blog: “Understandably, Harry would want to protect his wife and young son.
“But this protection seems to have backfired.
“The negative press coverage has not abated and privacy is largely non-existent in the United States once you walk outside your front door.
“The Duke and Duchess of Sussex and little Archie would be a lot safer behind the fences in Windsor Great Park.”
A few weeks after they relocated to Los Angeles, where they temporarily lived at producer Tyler Perry’s home, Meghan and Harry filed a lawsuit against paparazzi accused of taking pictures of their son while he was playing in the home’s garden.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex may not have found the privacy desired even in their new £11.1 million mansion in Santa Barbara, in which they moved in early July.
Mark Karloff, who presents the Paparazzi Podcast, explained the little community of Montecito where Meghan and Harry are now based is patrolled by photographers hoping to catch the celebrities living in the area.
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He told Newsweek: “I was actually joking with a photographer the other day that the shot to get now is Meghan and Harry coming out of a cafe with Oprah and Ellen.
“Montecito is such a small place, if they’re going to go out at all and enjoy the town or try to get a coffee I don’t know how they’re going to do it without getting spotted.
“Just before they moved up there, Orlando Bloom and Katie Perry were being shot there.
“Those photographers have kind of moved in up there when before Montecito wasn’t a place for photographers to hang out, unless they were passing through.
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“There’s a team of guys, multiple agencies, that are up there now and are patrolling.
“Now Meghan and Harry are there, I don’t think they’re leaving any time soon.
“Everyone wants to get them now. That tight group of photographers who are up there, they’ll get them at some point.”
Several royal commentators had previously warned the Sussexes would be left at the mercy of paparazzi outside of the UK.
Royal expert Ingrid Seward told the BBC Radio 4’s Programme in January, after Meghan was photographed by paparazzi on a walk with her dogs and Archie: “Of course the safest place for Harry and Meghan to be is in the UK.
“They haven’t been papped once since their marriage, and if they have been, no pictures have been printed.
“Those rules don’t apply in Canada. The paps can come from all over the world and lie in wait for them.”
Similarly, former royal protection officer Simon Morgan said living in California could make it more difficult for Meghan and Harry to fly under the radar.
He said: “There will always be an interest in the Sussexes and that interest may peak and trough as time goes on.
“But I think the more that they are not in the public eye, the more that they will want to know what they are up to and that creates its own monster within itself.”
