ARCHIE, 1, SUES PHOTO AGENCY
High Court writ claims snaps taken in Canada breached baby’s privacy
HE may have only celebrated his first birthday last month, but already Harry and Meghan’s son Archie is taking legal action.
The toddler – through his mother – is suing a photo agency for allegedly breaching his privacy.
A High Court writ claims that his ‘private information’ was ‘misused’.
The case is believed to relate to paparazzi photographs taken of Archie and his mother as she carried him during a walk in a park on Vancouver Island in Canada.
They were taken in January after the Duke and Duchess of Sussex decided to step down as frontline royals.
The photos, distributed by the Los Angeles-based agency Splash, showed Meghan smiling as she trekked along a path carrying her son in a sling. Neither Archie’s face nor any other part of his body could be seen, as he was wrapped in winter clothing and facing away from the lens.
The High Court writ – filed by celebrity law firm Schillings – is brought in the names of Master Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor and ‘ The Duchess of Sussex, HRH’. She is described as Archie’s ‘litigation friend’, a legal term for someone who makes decisions for a child involved in a court case.
It was filed on March 25 – two months after Harry and Meghan announced that they would stop using their HRH titles. Further details have not been made public.
Meghan is already suing The Mail on Sunday, claiming it misused private information by publishing details of a letter to her father. Last month at a preliminary hearing of that case, a High Court judge threw out her claims that the Press had waged a malicious campaign against her, branding parts of her case ‘ wholly inadequate’ and forcing her to cut down her claims.
Last night the agency said: ‘Splash confirms the existence of this claim and intends to defend itself vigorously against it.’ There was no comment from Schillings.
‘None of his face or body is seen’