News agency apologises over alleged drone pictures – Meghan and Harry’s lawyer

A news agency has apologised to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex after drones were allegedly used to take pictures of their son Archie, the couple’s lawyer has said.

The couple launched legal action in Los Angeles in July claiming an individual had photographed Archie, then 14 months old, at their home during lockdown.

The couple claimed the pictures were an invasion of privacy, belfast telegraph published.

Drones have been flown 20ft above their house as often as three times a day, according to the lawsuit, while some of the pictures of Archie have been sold.

Helicopters have also flown over the residence as early as 5.30am and as late as 7pm, the legal papers say, which had the effect of “waking neighbours and their son, day after day”.

Holes were also cut into the security fence by photographers, the lawsuit states.

In a statement on Thursday, their lawyer Michael Kump, of Kinsella Weitzman Iser Kump LLP, said the agency responsible, X17, had apologised to the couple and agreed to pay a portion of their legal fees.

Court documents from the Los Angeles County Superior Court said that the photos were of Archie and Meghan’s mother Doria Ragland.

X17 has also agreed to turn over the photos to the family, destroy any copies in its archives or databases and never again traffic in any photos of the couple or their son taken by drone, zoom or telephoto lenses “in any private residence or the surrounding private grounds”.

In their lawsuit the Duke and Duchess had claimed they lived “unmolested” in North Saanich, Canada, for six weeks before the media published their new location, leading to “up to 40 paparazzi and media organisations descending on this peaceful community from hundreds of miles away”.

Their move to Los Angeles earlier this year to the “gated community at the generosity of a friend” – thought to be the entertainment tycoon Tyler Perry – was similarly exposed, the couple said, resulting in further distress.

Meghan is suing Associated Newspapers, publisher of the two titles Mail on Sunday and MailOnline, over articles which featured parts of a “private and confidential” letter from the duchess to her estranged father, Thomas Markle, according to belfast telegraph>