Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced Sunday that they are severing all contact with four UK tabloid newspapers and would no longer “offer themselves up as currency for an economy of clickbait and distortion.”
In a scathing letter to the Daily Mail, the Sun, the Express and the Mirror shared by several outlets, the two firmly gave the papers the royal kiss-off.
“The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will not be engaging with your outlet,” the letter read. “There will be no corroboration and zero engagement. This is also a policy being instated for their communications team, in order to protect that team from the side of the industry that readers never see.”
Harry and Meghan have stepped back from royal duties, and noted in their letter that they have abandoned public funding. Now living in Los Angeles, the two have hinted at poor treatment by Britain’s tabloids as a reason for leaving palace life.
The two are suing the Mail for sharing a private letter sent by Markle to her father, and they have accused the Sun and Mirror of phone hacking.
“This policy is not about avoiding criticism,” they wrote in the letter posted Sunday. “It’s not about shutting down public conversation or censoring accurate reporting. Media have every right to report on and indeed have an opinion on the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, good or bad. But it can’t be based on a lie.”
“It is gravely concerning that an influential slice of the media, over many years, has sought to insulate themselves from taking accountability for what they say or print — even when they know it to be distorted, false, or invasive beyond reason,” they said. “When power is enjoyed without responsibility, the trust we all place in this much-needed industry is degraded.”