Home NEWS SALLY JONES was shocked at the Duchess of Sussex’s Wimbledon photo ban

SALLY JONES was shocked at the Duchess of Sussex’s Wimbledon photo ban

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SALLY JONES was shocked at the Duchess of Sussex’s Wimbledon photo ban

It is hard to believe what an extraordinary furore can be created by a single tap on the shoulder, followed by a polite request to stop taking photographs.

At Wimbledon last week, where the Duchess of Sussex turned up to watch her friend Serena Williams play, a number of people sitting close to her were told by her bodyguards they shouldn’t take pictures.

Among them was one fan who was actually taking a selfie, rather than trying to snap the duchess. And then there was me – asked to put away my camera when I was in fact taking a picture of Miss Williams.

When I wrote online about my personal experience of the Duchess of Sussex’s photo ban at Wimbledon, the world seemed to go mad. Assorted TV networks from around the world beseeched me to appear on their shows to recount the ‘traumatic’ incident.

One fan who was actually taking a selfie, rather than trying to snap the duchess, was forced to put their camera away at Wimbledon

This Morning and Good Morning Britain both got in touch. Friends from school I hadn’t seen for 30 years came out of the woodwork to tease me about my role as a dangerous subversive, determined to bring down the monarchy.

Though it may all seem a bit of an over-reaction, it speaks volumes about our love of Wimbledon, and how we expect royalty to behave.

What happened was this. I was watching Serena Williams welting down serves on Court 1 and snapping her on my tiny camera, when I was amazed to be asked, pleasantly but with a hint of awkwardness, if I would refrain as the duchess was there in a private capacity.

I was some 15 seats to her left and a couple of rows behind. Moments beforehand I had spotted her there, giggling away with two girlfriends and quite untroubled by autograph hunters, stalkers or even by me – a dangerous Middle England tennis enthusiast and monarchist armed with a small camera.

The man who had accosted me was obviously her royal protection officer, and he was deeply embarrassed as he explained she was there in a ‘private capacity’. I looked at him in astonishment. Private!? You what!?

A number of people sitting close to the Duchess at Wimbledon were told to stop taking photos

Half-amused, half-angry, I pointed out to the officer how barmy this seemed – and asked him why he had not also tried to control the 200-odd punters around the court joyously clicking away and posting the results to Facebook, or the BBC’s cameras which had briefly switched away from the court to record the Duchess’s presence.

I even mentioned the vast contrast between this control freakery, so alien to typical royal behaviour, and the Duchess of Cambridge’s calm, restrained demeanour two days earlier when there were plenty of amateur snappers, thrilled to encounter their idol with not a shoulder-tap in sight.

To me, the incident sadly typifies the celebrity-driven values of Team Sussex, and as someone who has played on the hallowed turf at Wimbledon and reported on the tournament for more than 40 years, I find it depressing.

Sally Jones was told to put away her phone – despite taking a photo of Serena Williams and not the Duchess

It is behaviour that could not be more different from the mutually respectful relationship between the royals and Wimbledon that has existed for more than a century.

They are as much a part of the championships as strawberries and cream. The future George VI even played there in the doubles, and over the decades scores have packed the royal box, from Princess Marina and her son, the club’s longstanding patron the Duke of Kent, to Princess Diana, who famously played a friendly doubles with Steffi Graf.

There’s the ever-present Princess Michael… and the Middleton clan, of course. Sporty Kate and Pippa were in the school team at Marlborough, while their mother Carole plays a good game too. 

They all add glamour and fun, and crucially seem to appreciate how privileged they are to be there. The truth is that I have always loved the monarchy and I was a particular fan of both Prince Harry and Meghan Markle during the preparations for the heart-warming multicultural extravaganza that was their wedding.

Harry had seemed a bit special; for his cheeky charm, his occasional mischief, his creation of the Invictus Games and concern for servicemen who, unlike him, did not come home unscathed from Afghanistan. Meghan, too, appeared a star addition to The Firm; a driven, talented woman who had ground out success in the notoriously tough and bitchy world of TV drama but who also appeared at ease on the world stage. Which is why this seemingly trivial incident at Wimbledon is disappointing.

It also seems to be part of a misguided attempt by Team Sussex, presumably courtesy of their PR advisers, to control media access – and somehow prove the couple are more ‘woke’ and enlightened than the rest of the Royal Family.

Something is going badly wrong when this golden couple begin to lose the respect of even their most loyal admirers – me among them.

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