Edwards offers a complicated assessment of the most successful years of his career. While he admits that he was “aggressive and intrusive”, he says he had healthy relationships with Diana and other key royals. Later, on a visit to a youth centre in Māngere, Prince Harry was invited to place a handprint on the wall. With his palm covered with purple paint, he placed it on Edwards' bald head instead. Edwards’ thrilling job required him to spend long periods away from his supportive wife, Ann, and their three children. Instead, he chronicled the childhoods of two little princes.

Paparazzi pictures of the royals are less common. Catherine, Princess of Wales, takes her own photos of her children and shares them with the press several times a year. It’s a far cry from the unrelenting pressure that Diana and her sons endured. Arthur Edwards has been The Sun's (UK) Royal Photographer for over 45 years; the longest serving of any newspaper. Originally from the East End of London, he is the man behind the most iconic photographs of the most famous family in the world. With commensurate skill and unprecedented access, he has captured the candid moments when protocol is put aside, revealing the true personalities behind the Crown.

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In July 1980, after just three years as The Sun’s royal photographer, a youthful Arthur Edwards was told that then-Prince Charles would be attending a polo tournament that would also be attended by a special young woman called Diana Spencer. Aside from the fact she was blonde, no details were known about the future king’s potential girlfriend, who would become one of the most photographed figures in the world. Edwards’ intimate relationship with senior royals clearly crosses the boundaries of the usual relationship between journalist and subject. But after almost five decades – and tens of thousands of pictures – it’s hard to imagine how he could have remained at arm’s length.

On the other hand, and what this documentary really drives home with actual footage of the Royal Family interacting with Edwards over four decades, is that the truth is much more complicated. Edwards himself explains it in a Zoom interview from London, where he is preparing to cover the coronation this weekend. The publisher said: “With commensurate skill and unprecedented access, he has captured the candid moments when protocol is put aside, revealing the true personalities behind the Crown. This beautiful book is a treasure trove of glorious photography, along with Arthur’s own warm recollections of the stories behind his iconic shots. It is the perfect glimpse behind the scenes of the past 50 years of the British monarchy, from a truly unique perspective.” Diana changed everything, as Edwards points out in the Stuff interview. Edwards says the royal family was previously more stand-offish and rarely interacted with the press, except to talk about the weather. When Lady Di appeared on the scene, the media became more aggressive, bent on turning the public’s obsession with her into a lucrative business. As one of the main players, The Sun spent a large fortune on sending Edwards wherever the Prince and Princess went: “I went on Charles and Diana’s honeymoon,” he says. “When they went skiing, I went skiing. I didn’t go for the first or second day – I went for the whole two weeks. It was a circus. When Diana got on a plane, 30 of us got on the plane with her. Those were the greedy years – the ‘Go, go, go, get, get, get’ years.” For 45 years I've chronicled the Royal Family for the Sun newspaper with my camera. I've witnessed their triumphs and disasters, their laughter and tears, when they've found love and when their relationships splinter. I'm there when they emerge from the maternity wing as wailing newborns and I'm there again when they marry before a joyous nation. And when they're laid to rest on those solemn occasions that this country marks so well, I'm on hand to capture history being made." In my company appraisal each year, there’s a line that says, ‘What are your ambitions for the following year?’ Every year, I put one thing: ‘To cover the coronation of the King’.It is Charles, however, who changed Edward’s mind about the nature of the job. “For a long time,” he says, he felt the prince was his quarry. “Some girl would grab him and kiss him and I got a great pic that went in the paper. But one day I realized he had a long way to go before becoming king, but in the meantime, he was trying to help people. He’d say, ‘I didn’t like that picture you did, Arthur’, or ‘So-and-so got this quote wrong’. But he said, ‘I always try to give you guys good pictures’. Edwards said Camilla, despite being Queen Consort, has never lost the "common touch", and is very supportive of the King. Arthur Edwards was one of the most aggressive photographers of that era, and also the one who got some of the best photographs. He took pictures of Princes William and Harry at the gates of their school and pursued them during their vacations. “I was aggressive,” he tells Stuff. “I was one of the worst. I never stopped. It was just, ‘Get the picture, get the picture.’” But everything changed on the night of August 31, 1997, when Princess Diana died in a car accident in Paris, while being chased by the paparazzi. Edwards remembers receiving a call at around midnight: “They said, ‘Look, go straight to Heathrow – we’ve chartered a plane for you. It leaves at 3am.’ I landed at 4am, rang the office, and they told me Diana was dead. I went to the tunnel and photographed a little girl laying flowers at the spot where she died. I went to the hospital and convinced them to have a small press pool, to photograph the coffin leaving. It is perhaps because of his affection and admiration for King Charles and Camilla that Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, are not among his favorite royals. In the interview with Stuff, the photographer is said to have used words such as “nasty” and “treacherous” to describe Prince Harry’s actions. Edwards says he doesn’t understand how the young man who was once the most popular member of the British royal family has now turned himself into “the most despised.” He says he also had a pleasant relationship with Harry. Indeed, he watched him grow up, before he left with his family for the United States, made the controversial Netflix documentary with his wife, and penned Spare: “In Africa once, we sat down after a long day and he offered to make me a cup of tea,” he tells Stuff. “He told me about why he was so excited about his charity work, and why it was so meaningful to him. He was a lovely guy. Now, his family won’t talk to him, because anything they say could end up in another book.”