The royal couple give a detailed account in the lawsuit of the media harassment they say they've had to constantly fight since they moved to Southern California.

"This action arises out of the relentless and quite frankly shocking efforts of the tabloid media to profit from serial intrusions of the privacy of a 14-month-old child in his own home," the suit says, "and the desire and responsibility of any parent to do what is necessary to protect their children from this manufactured feeding frenzy."

Meghan and Harry said the tabloid harassment came to a head when they saw that a photo of Archie was being offered to media outlets that was purportedly taken on a family outing in Malibu, when in fact it was clearly shot while he was in their yard.

"Archie has not been in public, much less in Malibu, since the family arrived here," the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit says the family was forced to erect a large mesh fence to block photographers with telephoto lenses from shooting pictures of them from a ridge hundreds of yards away from the home of a friend, where they have been living.

That led to the appearance of drones that flew as close as 20 feet above their home, as often as three times a day, in attempts to get photos, the suit says.

Since splitting from the Royal family in March, the couple chose to live at least part-time in North America "to escape the incessant UK tabloid fabrications," the lawsuit says.

However, their locations have been repeatedly leaked, leading to paparazzi once again appearing in droves.

Australian Associated Press