Prince Harry is the first royal to take the stand in over 130 years. Here are key reveals from Harry’s court cases
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Prince Harry is the first senior royal to take the witness stand in more than 130 years.
Harry’s appearance in High Court focused on 33 articles published by Daily Mirror newspapers that feature information he claims was obtained through illegal means, such as phone hacking, The Independent reported,
“Every single time one of these articles was written it had an effect on my life,” Harry said in court earlier this month, per People. “I am at a complete loss as to how these details were obtained.”
Here are some of the biggest reveals from Harry’s case against the Daily Mirror so far.
Why is Prince Harry suing Mirror Group Newspapers?
Prince Harry and more than 100 other public figures allege that Mirror Group Newspapers’ journalists unlawfully gathered private information on them through phone hacking, Reuters reported.
The claimants believe journalists accessed voicemails to their friends and relatives by exploiting a gap in phone security.
Describing the journalists’ process as “wrongdoing for cynical commercial reasons,” the claimants say reporters hired private investigators to trick people into providing them with confidential information, such as financial statements and medical records, per the BBC.
According to Harry’s lawyer, David Sherborne, the claims against Mirror Group Newspapers — which span from 1995 to 2011 — are “significant not just in terms of time span but in the range of activity it covers,” per CNN.
Harry was victim to “intrusive methods of obtaining personal information,” Sherborne stated, arguing that “no one should be subjected to that,” per CNN. The “unlawful methods” were “habitual and widespread” among journalists and editors, Sherborne said.
“It was a flood of illegality,” Sherborne said, per The Associated Press. “But worse, this flood was being approved by senior executives, managing editors and members of the board.”
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Mirror Group Newspapers apologized to Prince Harry
The publisher of the U.K. newspaper the Daily Mirror apologized to Prince Harry for unlawful gathering of information on his private life.
In court documents presented during the first day of the phone hacking trial, Mirror Group Newspapers admitted to one instance of unlawful gathering of evidence that occurred 20 years ago while Prince Harry was at a night club, reports Reuters.
Mirror Group Newspapers, which is owned by Reach, said it “unreservedly apologizes and accepts that (Harry) is entitled to appropriate compensation,” per CNN.
“(Mirror Group Newspapers) does not know what information this related to, although it clearly had some connection with his conduct at the nightclub,” the publisher added, admitting that the payment “represented an instruction to engage in (unlawful information gathering).”
The incident was initiated by a Mirror Group Newspapers journalist who hired a private investigator to illegally gather information on Prince Harry while he was at a London nightclub in 2004, according to People.
“(Mirror Group Newspapers) unreservedly apologizes for all such instances of (unlawful information gathering), and assures the claimants that such conduct will never be repeated,” the apology continued, per People.
The publisher denies the majority of allegations, arguing that some of the claims were made too late and that there is inadequate evidence of phone hacking.
In a witness statement, former Daily Mirror royal correspondent Jane Kerr told the court she never suspected private investigators were paid by the newspaper to participate in illegal information gathering methods.
“I don’t recall ever instructing anyone to do anything unlawful or knowing they were doing anything unlawful,” Kerr said, per AP News.
Key reveals from Prince Harry’s court cases
1. Piers Morgan makes Harry feel ‘physically sick’
Prince Harry mentioned British broadcaster Piers Morgan — who worked as editor of the Daily Mirror for nearly a decade — in his witness statement. Harry claims that thoughts of Morgan and his team of journalists prying into his family’s personal life makes him feel “physically sick.”
“The thought of Piers Morgan and his band of journalists earwigging into my mother’s private and sensitive messages (in the same way as they have me) and then having given her a ‘nightmare time’ three months prior to her death in Paris, makes me feel physically sick,” said Harry, per Deadline.
Morgan denies any knowledge of phone hacking while working at the Daily Mirror. Before the trial, Morgan claimed: “I’ve never hacked a phone. I’ve never told anybody to hack a phone,” per the BBC.
2. Harry became the school ‘laughing stock’ after mono reports
A 2002 article from Daily Mirror revealed that the young prince was suffering from glandular fever (mono), which is also known as “the kissing disease.” The article resulted in Harry getting “teased endlessly” at school, according to Harry’s witness statement.
Harry added that he is “not sure how anyone outside of my immediate family knew this” because he kept the diagnosis a secret due to being “ashamed” of it.
“It’s one of those infections that had a huge stigma attached to it when you’re a teenager,” Harry said in his witness statement. “This article made sure the whole country knew about my diagnosis.
“The whole school seemed to know,” he continued. “No one would go near me and I was a bit of a laughing stock.”
3. Harry blames MGN for his breakup with Chelsy Davy
While Harry was dating Chelsy Davy, the tabloids produced several articles that revealed personal details about their relationship. According to Harry, he and Davy were always in “the prying eyes of the tabloids,” which put “unnecessary stress and strain on our relationship.”
“Every time I was in a relationship or even a rumored relationship, that whole person’s family, and often their friends, would be dragged into the chaos and find themselves the subject of unlawful activity on the part of MGN,” Harry claimed, according to his witness statement.
Harry alleges that journalists from Mirror Group Newspapers illegally obtained information about his relationship with Davy through phone hacking and other illegal means. They kept intimate details about their relationship between themselves, he said, so he believes Mirror Group journalists “listened to (his) private messages” with Davy.
“Ultimately, these factors led her (Davy) to make the decision that a royal life was not for her, which was incredibly upsetting for me at the time,” according to Harry’s witness statement.
According to Harry, all of his relationships are threatened by paparazzi — “whenever I got into a relationship, they were very keen to report the details but would then, very quickly, seek to try and break it up by putting as much strain on it and creating as much distrust as humanly possible,” he said.
“This twisted objective is still pursued to this day even though I’m now married.”
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4. Harry says media coverage led to ‘depression and paranoia’
Growing up, Harry never understood how the media obtained “private elements” of his life, resulting in an inability to trust people close to him, according to Harry’s witness statement.
“I felt that I couldn’t trust anybody, which was an awful feeling for me especially at such a young age,” he said in his witness statement. “As I am uncovering the extent of the unlawful activities carried out by MGN’s journalist and senior executives towards me, I feel somewhat relieved to know that my paranoia towards my friends and family had, in fact, been misplaced, although feel sad for how much it impacted my adolescence.
“I remember finding it very hard to trust anyone, which led to bouts of depression and paranoia,” Harry continued. “It’s only now, realizing what the defendant’s journalists were doing, and how they were getting their information, that I can see how much of my life was wasted on this paranoia.”
5. According to Harry, Princess Diana was not ‘paranoid’
In his witness statement, Harry rejected claims that his late mother, Princess Diana, was paranoid.
“I’ve always heard people refer to my mother as paranoid, but she wasn’t. She was fearful of what was actually happening to her and now I know that I was the same,” Harry said.
Harry also addressed tabloid rumors that his biological father was James Hewitt, a man Diana entered a relationship with after he was born.
“I wasn’t actually aware that my mother hadn’t met Maj. Hewitt until after I was born. This timeline is something I only learnt of in around 2014, although I now understand this was common knowledge amongst the defendant’s journalists,” Harry said in his witness statement.
“At the time, when I was 18 years old and had lost my mother just six years earlier, stories such as this felt very damaging and very real to me,” he continued. “They were hurtful, mean and cruel.”
6. Queen Elizabeth sent someone to look over Harry during his gap year
Just recently, Harry learned that his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, sent one of her assistant private secretaries to stay in a home down the street from Harry during his gap year in Australia in 2003.
Queen Elizabeth “was concerned about the extent of the coverage of my trip and wanted someone I knew to be nearby, in case I needed support,” according to Harry’s witness statement.
What has the royal family said about Prince Harry’s trial?
A source close to Harry told Vanity Fair that the prince “will stop at nothing” until the case is resolved — but the royal family is concerned the results will not turn out in his favor.
“Harry will stop at nothing. He believes he was hacked and that he has every reason to believe this was the case, given that the Mirror has admitted to historic phone hacking (in other cases). In his eyes everything leads back to phone hacking,” the source told Vanity Fair.
“The family believes this is not going to end well,” the source added.
