Royal children receive stronger press protections in Britain, Prince Harry says

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were surprised to learn that their children, Archie, 7, and Lilibet, 5, are covered by specific press-code protections in Britain that do not apply in the United States. The couple faced a recent incident in which photographers, reportedly linked to a European news agency, attempted to take pictures of the children outside their school, prompting a statement from the Sussexes condemning the action as an "unacceptable intrusion into the privacy of children."

The palace insider noted that British regulations, reinforced after Princess Diana’s death in 1997, prohibit media activity around school premises and grant children greater privacy than was afforded to Harry during his own upbringing. The statement to Page Six on September 30 distinguished between legitimate media work and photographers loitering near a school, describing the latter as "extraordinarily reckless."

Under the Independent Press Standards Organization’s Editors’ Code, schools are considered off-limits to the press, a rule that now shields Archie and Lilibet from the type of coverage their parents experienced in the past.