The lawsuit Meghan Markle filed against Splash News & Picture Agency, for taking photos of her son, Archie Harrison, has led to the global paparazzi agency's bankruptcy.
Splash News & Picture Agency has filed for Chapter 11 in a Nevada court and stated that the costly lawsuit from the Duchess of Sussex was one of three biggest factors of their financial loss.
The company's president, Emma Curzon, said that they have a separate litigation case involving a former worker, which has also affected their finances. She added that the pandemic has been another source of their financial problems. The lockdowns made it impossible to take celebrity images that the agency could sell to news outlets.
In January 2020, paparazzi photographers from the agency encroached on Meghan Markle and her son's privacy during their walk to a public park in Vancouver, Canada. Markle and Prince Harry made Vancouver their temporary home after announcing they were stepping back from their royal roles.
Following their move to Los Angeles in March 2020, Markle filed for privacy breach and data protection on behalf of her son against all of Splash News' division. By July, the agency's U.K. division went into administration.
In December, the U.K. division settled with the Duchess of Sussex and agreed that they will no longer take photos of Archie. However, the U.S. division's lawsuit was still pending in the American courts until the Chapter 11 announcement in March 23.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been constantly fighting the paparazzi since their relationship was made public in 2016. They cited that this was one of the reasons that pushed them to step away from the royal spotlight.
Harry and Meghan have also won a separate lawsuit against the paparazzi agency X17 in Los Angeles, the paparazzi capital. X17 also illegally took the photos of Archie and Meghan's mother, Doria Ragland, using a drone-manipulated camera at the couple's rented Beverly Hills backyard.
The couple reported the incident to the Los Angeles Police Department, prompting the couple to move out of the city and find a house of their own in a gated community in Montecito, Santa Barbara. In October, X17 issued an apology to the couple and admitted their mistakes. The agency also reimbursed Harry and Meghan's legal fees.
Since moving to Montecito from Beverly Hills, Harry and Meghan Markle have had minimal problems with the paparazzi invasion, especially on their son. However, they were photographed eating at a restaurant outdoors with friends David Foster and Katherine McPhee.
