Meghan Markle Has Press 'Scared' Over Paparazzi Pictures—'She Won'

Meghan Markle paparazzi pictures prompt calls from lawyers at "timid" news organizations who are "scared of her," a photographer told Newsweek.

Jill Ishkanian's pictures of Meghan at a flower market in Montecito, California, were published in the Daily Mail on Saturday July 15, the latest in a series of images of the Sussex family, taken by a range of photographers.

Prince Harry and Meghan, who live in Montecito with their two children, have complained bitterly about the paparazzi before, including after what they described as a car chase in New York in May.

At the same time, critics of the Sussexes sometimes suggest that they call the paparazzi themselves in order to get media attention.

Ishkanian said she was not tipped off about Meghan's presence and was in the town because she grew up there. And she believes the couple's confrontational approach with the press has put publications on edge.

"I would say everyone's scared of her," she told Newsweek. "They're all scared of her—she won. The publications are just scared of her, they're more timid."

"She's trouble with a capital T. When you sell a picture of her you get lawyers calling you and they ask you all sorts of questions. They ask you, did she ask you not to take her picture?

"I got forms from the Mail, The Sun, everybody. They're all crazy. Then they ask you why were you there? No one called me, Montecito is a small place, if you're around it's not that hard."

Ishkanian said she has not received complaints from Meghan's team directly, having photographed Meghan four times since 2021.

British newspapers in particular may well have in mind the U.K. press regulator, the Independent Press Standards Organization (IPSO), and its Editors' Code of Practice, which places restrictions on photographers and journalists supplying content to British publications irrespective of which country they are based in and whether they are staff or freelance.

It says journalists "must not persist in questioning, telephoning, pursuing or photographing individuals once asked to desist; nor remain on property when asked to leave and must not follow them."

Ishkanian would likely have been asked why she was at the flower market because the photos would have been unprintable in a U.K. newspaper if she had followed Meghan from her home address.

And any pictures taken after a person has asked a photographer to stop also cannot be published without breaching the IPSO code.

Meghan and Harry also forced paparazzi agency Splash News and Pictures into bankruptcy over images of Meghan with son Prince Archie when he was a baby.

They sued at the High Court in London under European privacy laws over the images, taken in a public park in Canada in 2019.

Ishkanian said she stumbled on Meghan at the flower market on one of many routine trips to Montecito, where her mother lives.

"This would be the fourth time [photographing Meghan] since 2021 and I had a different vibe from her this time," she said. "When you do this kind of work you become very intuitive.

"The way she looked at me, it was just different than the other times. She just seemed like she'd been humbled a bit or brought down a peg a bit.

"She was so nice to those vendors, I am telling you, I heard her being so nice. She smiled and it was just a different thing than I've seen before."

Meghan and Harry issued a strongly worded statement after what they described as a "near catastrophic" car chase with paparazzi in New York in May.

Video footage published by TMZ showed a photographer taking images through the windows of a taxi as the couple, accompanied by Meghan's mother Doria Ragland, sat inside.

However, there was also pushback from New York mayor Eric Adams on their claim of a "relentless pursuit, lasting over two hours."

Ishkanian says she does not engage in the kind of tactics seen by the photographers in New York: "I kind of hide to be honest and so I don't know if they're maybe being aggressive.

"I would say Harry and Meghan want to control the narrative which you can't do especially when you live in a small town. No one seems to want to go to Santa Barbara. They all just hang out here so you're going to get caught."

However, she also said she is warming to the Sussexes after they showed up for their local Fourth of July celebrations.

"I'm going to say something nice about those two. I've lived here on and off for 58 years," she said. "Every year I've gone to Fourth of July, the parade, the fireman's pancake breakfast, I've done all that stuff. I used to always say why do no celebrities go to this to support the firefighters and local things?

"When I saw that Meghan and Harry went out there and supported the fire trucks going by I thought I've got to hand it to them that is the first celebrity that has ever done that. And then she was nice to me the other day so I'm getting more on their team."

Jack Royston is chief royal correspondent for Newsweek, based in London. You can find him on Twitter at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.

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