Meghan poses with Stephanie Heckl, editor of Bunte magazine. Photo / Getty Images
Meghan poses with Stephanie Heckl, editor of Bunte magazine. Photo / Getty Images
Meghan Markle was seen smiling and posing for a photo with an editor for a gossip magazine that published a private photo of her son Archie.
The Duchess of Sussex met Stephanie Heckl, editor of Bunte, and took a selfie with her during a walkabout in Dusseldorf, Germany on Tuesday,reports Newsweek.
The weekly magazine, whose editor-in-chief is Robert Polzer, notoriously published a private photo of Archie in its July 16, 2020 edition, when he was just a year old. Archie was photographed without his parents' knowledge while playing in the grounds of Tyler Perry's Los Angeles mansion.
VIDEO: The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle, are welcomed to Dusseldorf by a cheering crowd, a year before the start of the Invictus Games 2023. pic.twitter.com/PPzY7Sg0gb
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle then sued photo agency X17 over photos taken with drones a week later at the Los Angeles Superior Court and won. The company released an apology, and the Sussexes did not sue Bunte magazine.
According to Newsweek, Meghan wasn't aware who she was posing with, as along with Harry she met with fans during an Invictus Games promotion event. The games are set to be held in Dusseldorf in 2023.
However, the photo comes just a week after Meghan told The Cut in a wide-ranging interview that she did not want to give photos of her children to British media from the "royal rota".
"Why would I give the very people that are calling my children the N-word a photo of my child before I can share it with the people that love my child? You tell me how that makes sense and then I'll play that game," she said.
Harry has also spoken out about not wanting to "play the game" with the British press during his 2020 mental health docuseries The Me You Can't See.
"Family members have said, 'Just play the game and your life will be easier,' but I've got a hell of a lot of my mum in me," he said.
Bunte's July 2020 cover showed Archie playing with a toy car, accompanied by Meghan's mother Doria Ragland. The photo appeared to have been snapped from above.
And on July 23, 2020, the magazine also published a photo of Harry playing with his dog Pula by Perry's swimming pool, also within the private property.
It was the same day the Sussexes' US lawyer Michael J. Kump filed allegations of paparazzi use of drones and helicopters with the Los Angeles Superior Court.
