Meghan and the paparazzi

First of all a somewhat bizarre development. This week posh London lawyers acting for "Their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of Sussex" warned all media that photographers camping outside their new home on Vancouver Island were hiding behind bushes and using long lenses to peer into the house and this must stop becasue it was an invasion of their privacy. Legal steps were threatened. At the top of the letter addressed to all editors were the words: NOT FOR PUBLICATION. Yet almost immediately the lawyers' intervention became big news, appearing on the BBC and all newspapers online. I don't know what happened to the "not for pubication" notice but either it was totally ignored or the legal firm realised it was impossible to hold the story back and relented about publication. Anyway it became the main news. One of the points made was that it might look as if Meghan was happy to have her photograph taken, seeing as how she was smiling brilliantly as she carried baby Archie in a sling while walking in the woods close by her new home, accompanied a few feet back by a British royal protection officer and a Royal Mounted Canadian police officer on his mobile phone. Was he phoning his wife: "Guess what I'm doing, darling?" Why was she smiling so radiantly if she had just spotted a paparazzi photographer poking his lens throgh the bushes? Surely she would have swung round to her bodyguards and ordered them to arrest the spying cameraman? Or shouted angrily? Or looked dismayed? Perhaps I'm wrong, perhaps she had spotted a rare tree warbler on a branch or the sun breaking through the clouds or a rabbit scurrying into its warren. Whatever it was, it was a wonderful picture and the caption and stories that went with the picture all focused on how she happy she looked, although there were a few bitchy comments by some papers about the odd way she was holding Archie. He did look a bit skewed to one side but hey all Mums have their way of holding their baby. Anyway her lawyers said she wasn't at all happy and sent out their warning. Incidentally, if parapazzi were hiding behind the bushes why on earth did the protection officers do nothing? The hidden photographers could have been something more threatening. The two cops seemed not very bothered, and unless the Mounty (but not mounted) was phoning for back-up, he was otherwise engaged. The sad fact for Harry and Meghan is that their decision to move to Vancouver Island, a beautiful spot, is going to attract reporters and photographers to the area. It was inevitable. And it's likely to continue for some time, whatever their lawyers back in London say. Trying to take pictures of the couple inside their house with long lenses is obviously a breach of their privacy and all editors should be wary of publishing any pictures taken under such circumstances. But photographing them as they walk around in the woods or other public places seems to me to be legitimate, though every care should be taken not to be overtly intrusive. They remain public figures even though they want to live a quiet life away from all publicity. For the moment. Of course when they start their grand money-making commercial business selling their royal Sussex wares, I'm sure they will seek as much publicity as possible.