In the past, it was fairly common for the British media to supress information detrimental to the royal family. Of course the Edward/Simpson affair was not revealed to the public until the last minute, and I’ve read the British press refused to mention a royal visit to Glasgow in the 30s was called off due to fears of protests. So how much of this was due to legal issues and how much to self censorship? When did the British media become more agressive in its coverage of the royal family? And in 2016, whether to legal or self censorship, is there anything the British media won’t cover about the royal family?
As I recall, Princess Margaret was a tabloid magnet from the time she wanted to marry a divorced man in the 1950s.
Diana too.
The Palace has actually become more aggressive about photography in the last 20 years. The photographs of the Duchess of Cambridge sunbathing topless and Prince Harry nude at a party would probably have been printed without any legal threats in the 80s (SFW, the offending pictures aren’t at either link). The Sun eventually published the latter without consequence, but only after, IIRC, several days of papers publishing lurid headlines about the pictures but refusing to use them out of fear of retribution.
The first link mentions why they’ve taken a harder line: “The worst excesses of the press and paparazzi during the life of Diana, Princess of Wales.”