The British Press are Being Super Creepy About Harry and Meghan's Kids

Photographers have been spotted at the school attended by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s two children following the family’s return to the U.K.

According to People, “two young men carrying backpacks were observed by both the couple’s private security and school staff walking the perimeter of the school, stopping at various points and looking into the grounds. The men were initially seen separately before being seen together and returning to a white van, which police later determined was a rental vehicle.” One of them was later identified by the police as a photographer working for a European press agency.

The Sussex family’s spokesperson called the paparazzi chase “extraordinarily reckless. There is a world of difference between legitimate media activity and photographers walking the perimeter of a school, stopping to look into the grounds and monitoring children as they go about their day.”

This is, alas, not the only time the press has been deeply weird about Meghan and Harry’s kids since they returned to the UK. The kids, Archie and Lilibet, were removed from their first school after a security breach. Meghan had joined a parents’ WhatsApp group and one of the mums sold her out by leaking her messages and number. The British tabloids spun this as Meghan “leaking her own number,” because they’re still finding new ways to hate that woman.

Maybe I’m old fashioned but I find it very odd how entitled a hell of a lot of people feel to photographs of strangers’ children. I can’t think of many other circumstances where it would be socially acceptable to hire someone to walk around a school perimeter with a camera in the hopes of seeing a toddler you’ve never met. Usually, that’d get you put in jail. And yet the usual suspects are furious that Harry and Meghan don’t give them unfettered access to their children. No offence to the Sussex kids but they’re probably pretty boring and just want to play without being harassed by grown men who won’t stop spewing racist crap about their mother.

It’s truly one of the weirder parts of celebrity that the offspring of the rich and famous are expected to become commodities. With royals, it’s all the more toxic. Look at the way Harry was talked about from birth onward, forever deemed “the spare” and labelled the “troublemaker” and “cheeky one” before he could even talk. Even the way the Wales’s kids are discussed feels like it crosses a ton of lines. Royal reporters write fanfic about these pre-teens and it’ll only get worse as they age. Can you imagine how deeply creepy this lot will be towards all the royal kids once they hit puberty? I’m still haunted by the “all grown up” leering headlines directed towards the likes of Emma Watson and the Olsen twins.

Hot take but maybe shouldn’t stalk children at their school? And also we should abolish the monarchy.