Harry and Meghan: the agency refuses to deliver photos

A photo agency that took photos of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex during what the couple said was a dangerous car chase refused to release the images.

Backgrid told BBC News that it had rejected a legal demand to share all footage taken over several hours in New York City on Tuesday night.

The agency’s lawyers said the Americans had long ago rejected the “royal prerogative.”

The BBC has not independently verified the Sussex legal team’s request.

Conflicting accounts of what Harry and Meghan’s spokesperson described as a “near catastrophic car chase” resulting in “multiple near misses” have emerged since the incident became public on Wednesday.

The NYPD said “numerous photographers” had made the couple’s journey from an awards ceremony Tuesday night “challenging” but added that “no collisions, citations, injuries or arrests had been reported.” .

A taxi driver who briefly drove them suggested that his spokesman’s account was “exaggerated”, while parts of it were denied by some photographers involved.

Backgrid, a California-based entertainment imaging agency, said Thursday it had received a letter from the Sussexes’ legal team.

He said the letter read: “We hereby demand that Backgrid immediately provide us with copies of all photos, videos and/or film taken last night by the freelance photographers after the couple left their event and for the next several hours.”

BBC News has contacted the Sussexes for comment.

The agency said it had responded in a letter: “In the United States, as I’m sure you are aware, property belongs to the owner of the property: third parties cannot simply demand that it be given to them, as perhaps Kings can.

“Perhaps you should sit down with your client and tell him that his English royal prerogative rules for requiring citizens to hand over their property to the Crown were rejected by this country long ago.

“We stand with our founding fathers.”

Backgrid said Wednesday it was investigating the conduct of four freelance photographers involved in taking pictures of the Sussexes, even as the agency disputed the couple’s characterization of the incident.

The photographers felt that the couple were never in “immediate danger at any time,” according to the agency.

During the chase, the car carrying the duke and duchess, their mother and a security guard twice diverted to a nearby police station.

BBC News interviewed a taxi driver, Sukhcharn “Sonny” Singh, who was briefly involved in the chase. He said that his taxi was hailed from a police station.

They only drove a block when their cab “was blocked by a garbage truck and all of a sudden the paparazzi came and started taking pictures.”

Mr. Singh was then asked to drive them back to the police station.

A spokesman for the duke and duchess said the couple understood they are public figures, but the interest “should never come at the cost of anyone’s safety.”

Prince Harry has spoken of his anger at the actions of the paparazzi over the years, comparing the photographers to “a pack of dogs” that harassed his mother, in a BBC documentary.

Diana, Princess of Wales, has died from injuries she sustained in a car accident after photographers chased the vehicle she was in through the streets of Paris.

“Watching another woman in my life, who I love, go through this feeding frenzy, that’s hard,” she said in the recent Netflix documentary, Harry & Meghan.