Some backstory: when Prince Harry and then-Meghan Markle were engaged, they decided to rent a cute little cottage in the country. The cottage was in Cotswolds, a posh area full of celebrities and posh country estates. I thought it was weird that they were renting a place rather than buying, and I also thought it was odd that the Queen hadn’t already (at the time) given them a country home. By January of this year, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex had given up their multi-year lease on the home though. And that was because photos were published of the cottage in The Sun. At the time, I thought that the owners of the cottage simply authorized the photos as a way to get more interest in the rental, because the owners already knew that Harry and Meg were leaving for Frogmore Cottage. As it turns out, not so much. Splash News and Picture Agency got the photos through shady means, and Harry ended up suing the agency. And Harry won.
Prince Harry, Britain’s Duke of Sussex, has accepted substantial damages and an apology from a news agency which took photographs of his home from the air, Buckingham Palace said on Thursday. Harry’s lawyer said Splash News and Picture Agency had chartered a helicopter in January to take photos and film the private home of Harry and his wife Meghan, a former American actress, in Oxfordshire, central England.
“The syndication and publication of the photographs very seriously undermined the safety and security of the Duke and the home to the extent that they are no longer able to live at the property,” the lawyer said in a court statement.
“The property had been chosen by the Duke for himself and his wife given the high level of privacy it afforded, given its position in a secluded area surrounded by private farmland away from any areas to which photographers have access.”
Omid Scobie says Splash will pay the “substantial” damages, which will cover Harry’s legal fees, and whatever is left over, Harry will donate to charity. And so ends my theorizing about why they actually left that rental cottage/farmhouse. Now that they’re in Windsor, everything will be… slightly better on that front. Well, they’ll still have to deal with petty courtiers being petty, but no one will photograph Frogmore Cottage that extensively.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid.
Remember when the tabloids reported the Sussexes were leaving this home because they couldn’t afford it due to Meghan’s supposedly outlandish spending?
I called b.s. but some folks were actually believing the Sussexes were suddenly broke.
Was it E Andrews who claimed they had moved out because they couldn’t afford the rent? Shall we hold our breath waiting for a retraction?
I remember that so well so many concerns trolling talking about how Meghan is going to make Harry broken with all her spending. How someone needs to put the brake on her buying all this fancy clothes how she never live In the life of luxury before she like a kid in a candy store she was never able to affordable anything like this before. When people would point out that she had her own money and she always dress in designer clothes before she meet Harry people would scream she never would have access to the lite designer she was nobody. This was just way to put Meghan down and to once again try to control a woman of color because people couldn’t handle the fact that woman of color was able to afford and wear such nice designer clothes. People are only concerned about the cost of outfits when it comes to Meghan the accused of her all sudden being greedy or the cat that ate the canary but when it come to the another royal no one brings up Cost. I’m sure people are going to started to police Archie outfits too
I am glad the truth came out, as it always does, because the original story made absolutely no sense.
Good for him. Like you Kaiser, I didn’t realize HOW those pictures were obtained. I thought maybe they were older pictures or released by the owner or something like that. They rented a helicopter? Come on now. that’s pretty bad.
That’s terrifying. The thought of someone creeping around my house outside my window? Especially with a new baby??
*whine, whine* “But the royals spend too much taxpayer money on security.”
Yeah, because of lunatics like this and the people who read Splash.
there wasn’t a baby at the time, they haven’t lived at that cottage in a while
@olive: I know that, but my point was if they’re willing to invade one of your homes, what’s to stop them from trying to invade your other one. The British press hasn’t exactly treated Meghan or her private life very well up to this point.
There has also been a row over the fact that someone was using drones last week prior to the birth
Kaiser, someone flew a drone over Frogmore Cottage back in April, at a height interfering with Heathrow flight paths. The drone was photographed but the pilot wasn’t caught afaik.
Good on them for suing! I love gossip but I really dislike too much invasion of privacy or when celebrities get hounded by paps. It’s one thing to chat about rumours and another to rent a helicopter and behave like idiots
Can’t imagine making a living out of harassing people and intrusive behaviour!
Talk to Piers Morgan as he can give you the complete low down.
cry me a river – they’re all entitled big babies- if that’s all they have to worry about in life, they get off easy!
Yeah the rest of us have to worry about helicopters over our houses and telephoto cameras peering into our bedrooms constantly! The Sussexes are such divas
/s
if you visit this site with any regularity, then you know that’s not all they have to worry about…
You do know that Meghan has a hate group called meg exit who sole goal is to drive her out the royal family. And that one of this woman flew to New York during her baby shower and shout profanitys at her and wanted money to go back again to try to rip the fake baby bump off Meghan . Don’t forget that Meghan also was the target of another hate crime where someone send white powder to the palace address to her and Harry was the target of plan attack by white supremacy who called him a race traitor . And Archie at three days old was compare to a monkey but the Sussexs are just being entitled how dare they want to protect themselves And their son. They should just let the tabloids get away with leaking information about where they live so the crazies who want to harm Meghan and Archie know where to go .
That same tumblr crazy was at Windsor during the press conferences about the baby’s birth. She managed to get closer photos of Frogmore Cottage at different angles and posted them online.
Being a Royal doesn’t mean you give up your life and privacy. It doesn’t mean Harry has to allow the British Press and the Racist Brits to bully his wife and child. The more you racist go after Harry’s family the more he will protect them…..So bugger off!
@ casey Hey, don’t tar all brits with the same racist brush
@vanessa and Kate has a hate group and you don’t have to look very far away to find it!.
Casey20
Stop making generalizations about the brits. I don’t think racist is the right word for your attitude but its along those lines.
I clear!y stated Racist Brits…..not all Brits but the Racist Brits…. Please read and comprehend before you attack!!
I clear!y stated Racist Brits…..not all Brits but the Racist Brits…. Please read and comprehend before you attack!!
Perhaps you should think twice and post once and take more care with your use of capitals?
Perhaps you should know I wanted to post TWICE to make a POINT. I wasn’t calling every SINGLE BRIT in the entire world RACIST! DON’T BE SILLY!
When did this alleged Kate hate group show up to where she was at and start yelling at her? Because outside of people complaining about her work ethic and outfits online, there has not been anywhere near the same amount of vitriol against her. And it has never resulted in people showing up in person to trash her.
Surely you realize there are enough crazies who would gladly stalk them incessantly or even try to harm them. This is not being entitled, whiny babies, it’s about personal safety, especially now that they have a baby. Think before you post.
Sue Drew got lost on the way to Tumblr. Shoo!
I should have read the whole article but didn’t & as a result made a careless comment about two wonderful people. Won’t do that again – just having a grumpy day – so please disregard and remove my email. Thanks much – I am a royalist from way back!
“Substantial” in this case should have meant forcing Splash to fork over, let’s say, £ 1 million – to be divided among charities picked out by Meghan & Harry – in addition to paying Harry’s fees, in order to deter copycats.
It was highly irresponsible to publish those aerial photos in the light that Prince Harry was targeted by the far right for marrying a biracial woman. As of note Prince harry did not include the daily mail in the suit. They really do not matter.
It wasn’t just photos of outside their home but they managed to get shots of even the interior (bedroom, dining room, living room). Insane. How can anyone defend this. And don’t try to make this about being entitled to the private lives of public figures. There are LIMITS and don’t pretend it’s an all or nothing situation. Should we be privy to their medical records? Witness babies crowning? Live stream colonoscopies? Oh no wait, just Meghan because according to some RRs the British taxpayers actually OWN the mixed race one.
Also, did you all see that the Daily Mail had to retract their stories of H&M making people use a different parking lot at Windsor Castle for their private club and also their story about Gayle King meeting with them privately before Archie’s birth. None of it happened. Also Emily Andrews and Rebecca English both said they were leaving the Cotswolds due to money problems.
Just in case there are still people out there in denial that the RRs publish outright lies. And The Times also engaged in this tabloid level behavior by publishing the photos of their home.
How does Emily Andrews still have a job?? She literally just makes things up. Ridiculous.
@MA, do you have a link to that Daily Mail retraction? I’d love to read it…
Oooh, i hadn’t heard of those retractions – its good news and certainly seems as if the Sussex’s are fighting back against the bad PR now that they have the BP press office at their back and that now Ms Lantham is here.
Richard Palmer is just as bad, stirring up the tinfoil hat conspiracy theorists in his Twitter feed.
Yep, and he’s been getting his a$$ lit up on Twitter for the last 2 days for his racism and targeted harassment of Meghan.
Good on them.
I’m happy they won this.
Pictures of their bedroom? Really?
The invasion of privacy was absolutely ridiculous. Who in their right mind thought it was a bright idea to fly a helicopter over someone else houses to take pictures of the inside? Are you crazy?