A photographer at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's 2018 wedding has slammed the event as "miserable" and a "disaster" six years after the Sussexes' nuptials.
Harry tied the knot with the Suits alum in St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle on May 19, 2018, in front of 600 guests and a global TV audience estimated at 1.9 billion viewers.
Highlights
- Photographer Arthur Edwards called Harry and Meghan's wedding "miserable" and "a disaster."
- Harry and Meghan's attempt to avoid the press made the photographer's job difficult.
- Arthur said the couple deliberately turned away during their carriage ride.
Arthur Edwards, who has been photographing the royal family since 1977, said the couple made his job really difficult and did everything they could to avoid the press.
"I hated the day. The day was a miserable day," the experienced photographer revealed during an interview with The Sun.
Image credits: Karwai Tang/WireImage
"It was the worst royal engagement I ever did. Because Harry was determined to keep the newspapers away from it as much as possible," alleged the 83-year-old.
Arthur reportedly covered royal weddings in the past, such as Prince William and Princess Catherine's nuptials in 2011 and the wedding of Prince Edward and Sophie Wessex in 1999.
On that occasion, trying to capture a good photograph of the newlyweds was "hopeless."
"Harry was determined to keep the newspapers away from it as much as possible," alleged the 83-year-old
Image credits: The Royal Family
The photographer said the couple turned away when they rode past him in their carriage while greeting the crowd outside, preventing him from getting a good angle for his pictures.
"And then the carriage shot, where they went past me in the carriage, they looked the other way," he recalled. "So, for me, it was a disaster."
When the journalist asked whether the Sussexes' behavior had been "deliberate" to make him feel "unwelcome," Arthur responded, "I felt so. It wasn't just me. In many ways, [the press] were badly treated."
"Harry was angry at us about things said about Meghan. Some of the things were pretty harsh. Some were pretty unfair.
"He was angry, and I felt we were punished for that."
Arthur reportedly covered royal weddings in the past, such as Prince William and Princess Catherine's nuptials in 2011
Image credits: ArthurJEdwards
Image credits: Jane Barlow/PA Images
Two years after the wedding, Harry and Meghan would step down as senior working royals to move to Montecito, California.
The couple kept their Duke and Duchess of Sussex titles but are no longer addressed as his or her royal highness (HRH). Harry also gave up his military titles.
They are parents to two children: four-year-old Prince Archie and two-year-old Princess Lilibet.
Harry was very critical of the press in the Netflix documentary Harry & Meghan, which premiered in 2022.
In the six-episode series, the Duke of Sussex said there was an "unconscious bias" around race within Buckingham Palace, which especially affected his wife, and denounced the "planting of stories" by the media.
"I feel as though being part of this family, it is my duty to uncover this exploitation and bribery that happens within our media," Harry said in the first episode. "There's leaking, but there's also planting of stories."
"Harry was angry at us about things said about Meghan," he explained
Image credits: The Royal Family
"It all comes down to control; it's like, 'This family is ours to exploit. Their trauma is our story and our story and our narrative to control.'"
Harry also slammed the role of the press in the death of his mother, Princess Diana, in August 1997.
"I think one of the hardest things to come to terms with is the fact that the people that chased her through into the tunnel were the same people that were taking photographs of her while she was still dying in the back seat of the car," he said in the 2017 documentary Diana, 7 Days.
"William and I know that. We've been told that numerous times by people who know that was the case.
"Instead of helping, [they] were taking photographs of her dying on the back seat. And then those photographs made their way back to news desks in this country."
"It was certainly a disaster for the British taxpayers," wrote a Facebook user
