Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have been living a quiet new life in the English countryside free from the kind of relentless paparazzi harassment experienced by Princess Diana, reinforcing a point made recently by the prince's uncle, Charles Spencer. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex moved to Britain in August, yet anyone looking for a window into their lives would find more photos on Instagram than from the lens of paparazzi cameras. Meanwhile, there has been no sign of the kind of treatment Diana experienced, in which photographers would surround her car or camp outside venues while she was inside on private outings.
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." To .
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. 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.
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." 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.
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