Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have reportedly demanded that the celebrity photo agency, Backgrid, hand over the footage captured by paparazzi following their "near-catastrophic" car chase earlier this week. According to TMZ, the couple said they need the footage to help improve their security.
“We hereby demand that Backgrid immediately provide us with copies of all photos, videos, and/or films taken last night by the freelance photographers after the couple left their event and over the next several hours," the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's lawyers said in a letter to the agency per the outlet.
In response, Backgrid's lawyer rejected their demand. "In America, as I'm sure you know, property belongs to the owner of it: Third parties cannot just demand it be given to them, as perhaps Kings can do," their statement read per the BBC. "Perhaps you should sit down with your client and advise them that his English rules of royal prerogative to demand that the citizenry hand over their property to the Crown were rejected by this country long ago. We stand by our founding fathers."
Backgrid added that they had 4 photographers in three separate cars in addition to one on a bike who "had no intention of causing any distress or harm, as their only tool was their cameras," per TMZ. One photographer who was chasing the couple and Markle's mother Doria Ragland spoke out shortly after the news broke. "Last night, after leaving the theater, there were hopes from me and a few other photographers that maybe they would go to a restaurant. For the most part, I was driving and it was very tense trying to keep up with the vehicles," the anonymous photographer said.