Press harassment

[LouisFerdinand]

Princess Diana spoke about press harassment.   
Princess Diana speaking about press harassment - YouTube

[TLLK]

Something that unfortunately continues today for British and European royals and their family members.

[Curryong]

Of course Diana was an exception in the way that she was pursued by the paps and Press. She was at one point the most photographed woman on earth, and thousands of articles were written about her.

The Leveson Inquiry has made a difference I feel but still, the BRF tabloids are relentless. In general European royalty is allowed to get on with their everyday lives in a way the BRF is not. This is probably because the US media is more interested in the British Royal family than any others (with the possible exception of the Spanish) and that provides a ready market for a whole heap of stories that may or may not have a grain of truth in them.

As for the British tabs what possible enjoyment newspapers like the DM feel their readers get from photos of Pippa with a cup of coffee, (and yes I know she isn't Royal,) Kate doing some shopping in Kensington, Eugenie and Beatrice at a party, or Harry getting a steak from Tesco's, heaven only knows!

Harry especially could complain of press harassment by the British tabs (and does) because he's not married yet, so there are the inevitable made up stories about him and his girlfriend to titilate readers. Maybe when he's married with a couple of children they'll shut up, but at the moment their behaviour has prevented Harry and Meghan from having a normal courtship, and that surely should be the right of everyone.

[Duch_Luver_4ever]

Yes, I recall in a doc when a few paps followed Kate before the wedding and there was some mention of it and I thought, as the kids say, "_itch, please!" that was nothing to the circus in 1980/81. Sadly Kate doesnt have the pull with them to make her topless pics go away like her mother in law did. Although they should have been bloody smart enough to not have them taken in the first place....

I think the pace of things has gotten to a more healthy, normal-ish amount, with the current crop just not having that certain something that made Diana the one to watch.

[amabel]

the press would nto write the stories or publish the photos unless the public DID read and want to see them

[royalanthropologist]

Diana was really the first reality celebrity of this generation. That explains her complicated relationship with the press. On one hand she needed them to highlight her causes and write positive things about her in her marital struggles. On the other hand; the press was insatiable and impertinent once she invited them.

The people who bought all those magazines also had a role to play. Had people not bought all those magazines with minute (and often made up) details about Diana; the press would have given up the harassment long time ago. Nobody really harasses the Duchess of Kent or Princess Michael of Kent for example, precisely because they are not part of the ravenous PR bubble that Diana had joined. Diana leaked stories to favored journalists like Richard Kay and was a master at being photographed in the right place at the right time in order to promote her given cause. The Tag Mahal picture is a classic example.

Unfortunately Diana forgot one important lesson: you lie with dogs and they give you fleas. The press was emboldened after the divorce. They felt free to write anything and everything about her. She was now nothing more than a cash cow for them. Then there was that dreadful, dreadful mistake of inviting and posing for photographs on the yacht with Dodi. I suspect it was a way to get Camilla's birthday off the pages but it backfired spectacularly because once again it brought the press to what was a private holiday.  The rest is history.

[amabel]

She was never anyting more than a cash cow to most of them.  A few were fond of her, on a personal level, they had seen her as a girl dating Charles, felt a fatherly affection for her.. or were a  little bit in love with her.. having seen her grow up in public and grow into her role as Princess.  But still ti was a job and with many of them, that's all it was.. Even if they liked her, she was still their bread and butter.

[sandy]

Diana was really the first reality celebrity of this generation. That explains her complicated relationship with the press. On one hand she needed them to highlight her causes and write positive things about her in her marital struggles. On the other hand; the press was insatiable and impertinent once she invited them.

The people who bought all those magazines also had a role to play. Had people not bought all those magazines with minute (and often made up) details about Diana; the press would have given up the harassment long time ago. Nobody really harasses the Duchess of Kent or Princess Michael of Kent for example, precisely because they are not part of the ravenous PR bubble that Diana had joined. Diana leaked stories to favored journalists like Richard Kay and was a master at being photographed in the right place at the right time in order to promote her given cause. The Tag Mahal picture is a classic example.

Unfortunately Diana forgot one important lesson: you lie with dogs and they give you fleas. The press was emboldened after the divorce. They felt free to write anything and everything about her. She was now nothing more than a cash cow for them. Then there was that dreadful, dreadful mistake of inviting and posing for photographs on the yacht with Dodi. I suspect it was a way to get Camilla's birthday off the pages but it backfired spectacularly because once again it brought the press to what was a private holiday.  The rest is history.

No, it did not backfire. Diana got her photograph on the front pages  from her holiday.  It was good to get Camilla's birthday off the front pages. Maybe Camilla should learn to be frustrated once in a while. I understood it did not go over well with her. The photo of her was not with Dodi it was the one where she was sitting on the diving board on the Jonikal. It was before she took up with Dodi. She was photographed with Dodi weeks later not at the time of Camilla's birthday. It was a solo photograph of her. And even that non-sensational photo took Camilla off the headlines.

Princess Michael and DUchess Catherine are royals but not prominent ones. THey are the Queen's cousins in law. Catherine pretty much lives a very reclusive existence lately. Princess Michael is married to a royal cousin. Their weddings did not get broadcasted to the whole world. DIana came into the family as the wife of the heir to the throne. Big Difference.

I think the lying down and getting up with fleas applies to Prince CHarles' PR campaign and being in league with Junor a person not everybody likes.

People should not be "forbidden" to buy magazines with photographs in them unless the photographs are salacious and there have been lawsuits about them. There were mainstream journals like Vanity Fair where Diana actually had agreed to the photographed being published. She promoted Testino by having iconic photographs taken of her and published in mainstream magazines. Even Charles and William and others have had embarrassing photos published in tabloids. This does not only apply to Diana. 

[royalanthropologist]

@sandy wrote:

" No, it did not backfire. Diana got her photograph on the front pages  from her holiday.  It was good to get Camilla's birthday off the front pages. Maybe Camilla should learn to be frustrated once in a while. I understood it did not go over well with her."

This is a very immature mindset, the implication that wiping Camilla off the front page was worth the resultant press intrusion that ended up with Diana running away from the paparazzi in a tunnel and dying in an accident. Absolutely ridiculous. I am sure if Diana had a choice, she would choose to live rather than getting a press scoop. I can't believe there are people who even think like that??? Absolutely ridiculous way of thinking.

Camilla was not frustrated at all because her identity has never been defined by whether or not she is able to get into the headlines. Not once have I heard Camilla or her fans complaining or celebrating about "wiping people off the front pages". That has never been her style or interest. 

Whilst that drama was going on, Camilla had her birthday party and was safely ensconced in her own home at Raymill. I fail to see how she was the loser in this context.

[sandy]

Diana was in an auto accident. IT was not because she got photographed with Dodi. If you recall, the paparazzi were cleared of charges.  Diana died young, she was the most photographed woman in the world. She got photographed on holiday something that goes on today with her sons and daughter in law. Getting photographed does not necessarily mean someone will get killed. Royals are fair game for the paparazzi to this very day. And even before Diana, they were looking for money shots of Charles, Princess Margaret, and others in the royal family. Way back when Margaret was photographed with a boyfriend in the Caribbean (while she was still married). It did not begin and end with Diana. Who I think is being scapegoated here.

All I know is Camilla did not like it. She has more than made up for the "lack of attention" today and certainly does not just sit in Raymill now. Her friend Junor is very ego boosting to her and probably the two giggle about the "evil" Diana and how Saint Camilla is the savior of the monarchy. I think Camilla grinning wearing the bling was a photograph in very bad taste. It was like Zsa Zsa Gabor flaunting a bauble she got from a rich husband.

[royalanthropologist]

Diana was running from the paparazzi in that tunnel. It was all part of the press corps and media bubble that had surrounded her life for quite some time. Some of it came from interest about a member of the royal family whilst some of it came from Diana courting the press. I think it is Whittaker who noted that Diana was the one who was alerting photographers were she would be on holiday and striking the right poses.

There were many members of the royal family having holidays at that particular point of time but the paparazzi were only really going for Diana (as you yourself pointed out with wiping Camilla off the front pages). There are reasons for that level of press interest. Some of those reasons were beyond Diana's control whilst others were definitely within her control. She wanted and needed the press...but on her own terms. Diana did not realize that you cannot control the press once you give them access to your personal life.

[sandy]

But that said. The paps were exonerated by the police and not blamed.

THey all wanted and still want the press "on their own terms" in the royal family. William is a big proponent of that as well as his father.


Diana and Charles went on ski holidays every year, they both complained about the press. Diana and Rosa Monckton were on holiday together and wanted it a private holiday. Someone tipped off the press (not Diana) that Diana was there on holiday. Monckton confirms this. And so it was not that Diana "always" tipped off the press.

[Trudie]

Sorry @royalanthropologist but Diana was harassed by the media from the minute it became clear she was the one. On any given day there were many photogs and paps with ladders at the walls and gates of KP Diana couldn't even go near a window in her own home without a picture being taken that was harassment and invasion of her privacy. As for July and Aug of 97 that photo was taken before Dodi joined the Yacht and in the past there was an understanding if Diana posed for a few pictures the press would leave her alone. The accident in Paris was not just because of the media it was the fact that IMO it was the Al Fayed organization that created that circus publicizing the entire day and bad decisions by Dodi insisting they stay at his apartment and Henri Paul being drunk, taunting the press and driving too fast.

[TLLK]

'They spat at her': Prince William on Diana's paparazzi | Daily Mail Online

At times the family must have felt that they were being hunted while on their vacations. Even after they'd had their official photocalls the paparazzi would not leave them alone. :(

ecalling the infamous skiing trip to Lech in Austria, photographer Jayne Fincher tells the programme that some paparazzi reneged on a deal to simply picture the Princes and their mother at a photocall on the first day of their holiday.

Instead, she says, the pack pursued them 'through the town to a sweetshop'. Fincher adds: 'The photographers were running everywhere. It was like rats running everywhere.

'They all wanted to be in their face, right up to them, pushing and shoving, they were fighting with each other. Photographers were falling over. And the boys were very frightened. I was in the shop when she [Diana] came in... and she was sort of exasperated by it [as if she was thinking] what, what are they doing? I've kept my part of the deal, we did our photocall, why are they all doing this?'

Read more: 'They spat at her': Prince William on Diana's paparazzi | Daily Mail Online
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