The ex-Obama aide and Hollywood guru behind Harry and Meghan's PR machine (2024)

Headlines, headlines and more headlines.

Scarcely a week goes by without Harry and Meghan being in the news. This week it happened while they were in New York, where the couple complained they were chased by paparazzi photographers who engaged in a “relentless pursuit, lasting over two hours”.

Precisely what happened – and for how long – after the couple and the duch*ess of Sussex’s mother, Doria Ragland, left the Ziegfeld Ballroom in Midtown Manhattan is in dispute: police said there were no injuries or arrests made, the Backgrid picture agency has challenged the couple’s account and a taxi driver, who briefly transported them in his yellow taxi, said he would not have described what happened as “chase”.

Yet the incident on Tuesday evening has left many asking questions about the wisdom of the decisions being taken by the couple, and the team they have surrounded themselves with. Did they respond in the correct way after the photographers followed them, and was it wise to describe the events in such dramatic fashion?

The couple’s PR is led by employees of Archewell, the organisation founded in 2020 and that includes the couple’s foundation, as well as its creative projects.

The couple’s global press secretary is Ashley Hansen, who has extensive experience of Hollywood and the entertainment industry. Before joining the Sussexes, she was vice president of global communications and media relations at an arm of Universal Pictures.

Another key team member is Miranda Barbot, who serves as director of global communications.

Ms Barbot was part of the team that helped Barack Obama win re-election in 2012. Last year, it emerged she left US public relations firm BerlinRosen and joined Archewell.

Other members, who were brought together in California, where the couple are now based, include former Pinterest communications chief Christine Schirmer. She serves as an adviser.

Last year, it was announced Mandana Dayani, who had been hired by the couple in 2021 and served as president of Archewell, was standing down. The Sussexes said there was no falling out and that Ms Dayani was only due to fill the role on a short-term basis.

“Ms Deyani was brought on during their parental leave to move the company and its projects forward,” the couple said in a statement.

Yet she was not the only member of the team to depart.

Shortly after the release last year of the couple’s hugely watched Netflix film it emerged that Ben Browning, who had helped create the six-part the film, and publicist Fara Taylor, were leaving. Netflix said the documentary enjoyed 81.55 million viewing hours globally within four days of release.

After the incident in New York, where the duch*ess was being honoured at the Ms Foundation for Women’s annual gala, there were conflicting reports as to what happened.

“This relentless pursuit, lasting over two hours, resulted in multiple near collisions involving other drivers on the road, pedestrians and two NYPD [New York Police Department] officers,” the couple said in a statement.

It said there was “a ring of highly aggressive paparazzi” in half a dozen cars with blacked out windows.

Later, it emerged that the Backgrid photo agency employing the photographers had rejected a legal demand from the couple to hand over all the material.

The incident has set supporters and critics of the couple once again at loggerheads.

Their critics claim they are attention seekers looking to attack the media. Fans say they were again hunted by the media, something Prince Harry has said terrifies him.

Archewell did not respond to questions. The security firm assisting the couple, Buda Security Inc, also did not respond to inquiries.

Royal author and historian Robert Hardman told i that people’s opinions about the couple are now utterly fixed.

“You’ve got admirers and critics so entrenched, that I don’t see anything moving the dial on this particular debate,” said Mr Hardman, whose books include Queen of the World and Queen of Our Times: The Life of Elizabeth II.

Meanwhile, a former New York paparazzi said the city is a tough place for celebrities to hide from photographers, in part because of the frequent traffic jams and large number of red lights.

Often, said the former tabloid journalist, who asked not to be named, celebrities’ drivers often pause at green lights and wait for them just to turn before crossing, forcing the pursuing media to cross on red and risk being stopped by police.

The challenge this week for Harry, Meghan and her mother was that they were trying not to let the media know where they were staying.

“If they show up at a planned event, that one’s thing for them to deal with,” the journalist said. “But what they don’t want is 20 photographers turning up where they’re staying at 6am, and then the day after that as well.

He added: “That turns a one-day job for the photographers into three days.”