Kate Middleton and Prince William

Kensington Palace has reacted to a video of Prince William punishing a photographer who allegedly shot his family cycling outside their Anmer Hall home in Sandringham. The palace said this was a violation of the family’s privacy.

The Telegraph also reported that at the time the lawyers wrote to the photographer, palace staff requested that the video be removed from their website. The original video uploaded to YouTube is no longer available, but has since also been posted on Twitter (blocked in Russia), Instagram* and TikTok, but most of the posts there have since been removed. Royal aides are reportedly working to have the video removed from all platforms.

@royaldisclosure Ona William #paparazzi #princewilliam #confronting #duchessofcambridge #privacy #fyp #royalfamily #foryoupage ♬ original audio — Royal Disclosure

The video was filmed in January 2021 but only went online this week and immediately went viral. “You were waiting for us here,” Prince William says to the man behind the camera in the video. Kate Middleton can be heard off-camera saying, “We went cycling with our kids, we saw you at our house.”

Prince William then went into an angry monologue:

Before setting off, the Duke of Cambridge said to the photographer: “Thanks for ruining our day… I thought you knew that already.”

In the video, the person recording the video denied any wrongdoing and said he only drove on public roads. According to the prince, the couple’s three children, eight-year-old Prince George, seven-year-old Princess Charlotte and four-year-old Prince Louis were not seen in the video, but were apparently present at the event.

Prince William and Kate Middleton with their children

Prince William’s reaction is explained by his family’s experience. As a schoolboy, he witnessed the paparazzi stalking his mother, Princess Diana. Such hype finally ended tragically – Diana died in a car accident, hiding from journalists.

Prince William has spent years perfecting his relationship with the press. It allows a small number of children to be photographed each year in recognition of their future public roles, but insists on complete secrecy at other times. The British media also do not publish photos or videos of the royal family taken on special occasions.

Prince William has previously warned of the dangers of social media and the reluctance of its leaders to address a range of issues affecting users.

He said in 2018.

The royal family does not often reveal rumors or personal matters related to members of the royal family. The last time they made such a comment was a few years ago, when they released a statement about the rumors that Kate Middleton was using Botox.

*Instagram is owned by Meta, a recognized extremist organization in the Russian Federation.