Prince Harry suing Sun and Mirror over allegations of phone hacking and 'unlawful newsgathering activities'

Britain's Prince Harry watches an anti-poaching demonstration exercise conducted jointly by local rangers and UK military deployed on Operation CORDED at the Liwonde National Park on day eight of the royal tour of Africa, in Liwonde, Malawi, Monday, Sept. 30, 2019. (Dominic Lipinski/Pool Photo via AP)
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The Duke of Sussex is suing the publishers of The Mirror and The Sun over allegations his phone was hacked.

Buckingham Palace has confirmed Prince Harry has filed claims at the High Court “regarding the illegal interception of voicemail messages”.

It is not know what the messages are alleged to have contained.

A document that shows Prince Harry’s lawyers are going to court (HM COURTS AND TRIBUNAL PUBLIC SEARCH)
A document that shows Prince Harry’s lawyers are going to court (HM COURTS AND TRIBUNAL PUBLIC SEARCH)

The report, published by Byline Investigates, claims the Duke of Sussex filed documents at the High Court in London on September 27, via his lawyers Clintons LLP.

He reportedly alleges News UK - the organisation that owns The Sun and the now-defunct News of The World - and Reach PLC, the company that owns the Mirror, both misused his private information for stories.

It comes just days after the Prince and Meghan Markle launched legal action against the Mail on Sunday, alleging the newspaper misused a private family letter.

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Harry wrote in an online statement: "Unfortunately, my wife has become one of the latest victims of a British tabloid press that wages campaigns against individuals with no thought to the consequences -- a ruthless campaign that has escalated over the past year, throughout her pregnancy and while raising our newborn son.

"This particular legal action hinges on one incident in a long and disturbing pattern of behavior by British tabloid media.

"The contents of a private letter were published unlawfully in an intentionally destructive manner to manipulate you, the reader, and further the divisive agenda of the media group in question."

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex attend a creative industries and business reception at the British High Commissioner's residence in Johannesburg, South Africa, on day 10 of their tour of Africa. PA Photo. Picture date: Monday September 23, 2019. See PA story ROYAL Tour. Photo credit should read: Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex attend a creative industries and business reception at the British High Commissioner's residence in Johannesburg, South Africa, on day 10 of their tour of Africa. PA Photo. Picture date: Monday September 23, 2019. See PA story ROYAL Tour. Photo credit should read: Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire

And in 2016, the Prince blasted the tabloid press for introducing “racial overtones” into the reporting of his relationship with the-then Suits actress.

At the time, a statement from Kensington Palace read: ““Some of this has been very public.

“The smear on the front page of a national newspaper; the racial undertones of comment pieces; and the outright sexism and racism of social media trolls and web article comments.”

According to the BBC, it is presumed the new allegations relate to the early 2000s.

A picture taken in London on April 18, 2015 shows an arrangement of British newspapers and an edition of the Sun newspaper carrying a front page story about the collapse of prosecutions by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) under the police's Operation Elveden.  Villified for their dark arts since the phone-hacking scandal, Britain's popular press won a victory this week after prosecutors acknowledged that the long-held practice of paying sources for stories was legitimate. Paying for stories has long been common in the British media, and many of the journalists prosecuted said they had no idea they might have been committing a crime. Britain's top-selling newspaper, The Sun, has said there was a "witch-hunt" against its journalists and in a front page Saturday condemned the "Crown Persecution Service".  AFP PHOTO / DANIEL SORABJI        (Photo credit should read DANIEL SORABJI/AFP/Getty Images)
A picture taken in London on April 18, 2015 shows an arrangement of British newspapers and an edition of the Sun newspaper carrying a front page story about the collapse of prosecutions by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) under the police's Operation Elveden. (Photo DANIEL SORABJI/AFP/Getty Images)

The claim - which would be the first time a royal would stand in the box in a trial - is unlikely to proceed until early 2021, according to the report.

A spokesperson for News Group Newspapers (NGN) said: "We confirm that a claim has been issued by the Duke of Sussex.

“We have no further comment to make at the current time."

Yahoo News UK has approached Reach PLC for comment