Prince Harry has had a complicated relationship with the media, which has tracked his every move as part of Britain’s most famous family.
But after increasingly outspoken complaints about press coverage, he and wife Meghan now want to control their own publicity when they step away from frontline royal duties.
As part of their plan, out goes favoured access to the “royal rota” of mainly newspaper correspondents, set up to pool text, photo and videos to avoid unmanageable media scrums.
In comes handpicked reporters and outlets to promote their chosen causes, with primacy given to social media, on which the couple has made several announcements.
The move has been seen in some quarters as “revenge” on the British media for negative coverage.
But experts warned it could backfire if they do end up living partly in North America, stripped of the protection of carefully choreographed media events and experienced press teams.
“They could find it’s worse than here,” Richard Palmer, who writes on the monarchy for the Daily Express, told AFP.
Signs of a split with the media have been brewing since November 2016, when Harry’s spokesman hit out at coverage of Meghan, just months after they began dating.
He claimed some reports had crossed the line into “abuse and harassment”, with clear “racial undertones” and sexism. “This is not a game — it is her life and his,” he warned.
In several interviews before and after their engagement in November 2017, Meghan spoke about the difficulties of coming under such intense interest and daily scrutiny.
Rumours about life behind the scenes have intensified since then, including speculation — all but confirmed by Harry — of a rift with his elder brother, William.
That culminated in another attack on coverage of the couple, now parents to a son, Archie, as they wound up what had been seen as a successful tour of southern Africa.
Harry spoke of the painful “human cost to this relentless propaganda”, recalling how his mother was pursued relentlessly during and after her marriage to his father Prince Charles.
“I lost my mother and now I watch my wife falling victim to the same powerful forces,” he said. Diana died in a 1997 Paris car crash, as she was being chased by paparazzi photographers.
