Azerbaijan-born Hasan Hasanov, 58, was taking a picture from the row in front of Meghan’s VIP seat at Wimbledon earlier this week when her security staff told him to give the Duchess and her friends some privacy.But the oil and gas safety engineer said he had no intention of disrupting Meghan’s day out in SW19, as he had no idea the Duchess was even there and was more focused on the tennis stars in the court. 

Mr Hasanov, who has been recently awarded British citizenship after having lived in the UK for 20 years, told The Sun: “I honestly couldn’t really care less about taking a picture of Meghan, Harry or any of the royals — and, if I did, I’d ask first.

“I was much more interested in getting a video of Roger Federer in action.”

Mr Hasanov, who queued from 5am and paid £25 to get into Court One, was simply facing the Duchess not to photograph her but to take a selfie for his wife Olga showing the court behind him.  

He added that, when security told him to “give them privacy”, Mr Hasanov thought they were asking him not to take pictures of the players without their shirts on.

The moment the bodyguards approached Mr Hasanov has been captured by professional photographers at Wimbledon, and a careful look at the picture shows the 58-year-old was truly taken a picture of himself.

He continued: “It seemed crazy to me because all I did was take a selfie to send to my wife.

“I was in the best seat I’d ever had in 15 years of queuing up for Wimbledon and wanted to show off because she didn’t get out of bed to join me.” 

Explaining he started the queue holding the ticket number 1,400 in the line, Mr Hasanov was excited to see what great seat he had landed.

He continued: “I couldn’t believe my luck when I got there because the only restriction was occasionally having the umpire between me and the players.”

The tennis enthusiast describes himself as a monarchist, believing the Royal Family is good for the country, and has no hard feelings against the Duchess for the chaos his picture has sparked.

He said: “I know lots of people would like to get pictures of Meghan and I know people get cross when she gets upset because she’s a public figure. 

“I won’t be getting cross about this because — to be honest — I had no idea what was going on until days later. And I’ll stay a fan of the royals.”

Buckingham Palace justified the bodyguard’s warnings saying royals often insist on no photos so they can “properly engage with people and events”.

Meghan was in Wimbledon to watch her friend and tennis champion Serena Williams playing.  

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