- Prince Harry this week became the first senior British royal to take the witness stand in more than 130 years.
- Harry spent a day and a half testifying before London’s High Court on allegations that he had been unlawfully attacked, including by phone hacking, by the Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN).
- The Prince is one of more than 100 plaintiffs, including actors and actresses, suing MGN over allegations of unlawful information gathering over a two-decade period from 1991 to 2011.
Prince Harry this week became the first senior British royal in more than 130 years to take the witness stand in a court case over alleged phone hacking by British media group MGN.
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Prince Harry this week became the first senior British royal to take the witness stand in more than 130 years, demanding justice for him and his wife Meghan Markle after years of hounding by the British press.
Harry – the youngest son of King Charles III, who retired from royal duties in 2020 – spent a day and a half testifying in London’s High Court over allegations he had been unlawfully targeted by the Mirror Group, including through telephone Hacking newspaper titles (MGN).
MGN denied using illegal methods to obtain information about the prince.
The 38-year-old, who was represented in court by attorney David Sherborne, claimed the procedure lasted over a 15-year period, from his childhood to his mid-twenties, shattered his youth and ruined relationships, among other things, with his ex-girlfriend Chelsy Davy.
Although the allegations predated his relationship with Meghan, Harry told the court he was motivated to bring the case after a chance encounter with Sherborne when they discussed ways to “stop the abuse, interference and hate who approached me and my wife”. .”
Prince Harry is one of more than 100 plaintiffs, including actors and actresses, suing MGN over allegations of unlawful information gathering over a two-decade period from 1991 to 2011.
The group alleges that MGN senior editors and executives were aware of and encouraged wrongdoing, including phone hacking — the illegal interception of voice messages.
MGN, publisher of the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and Sunday People magazines, has previously admitted its titles were responsible for phone hacking. But MGN’s attorney, Andrew Green, said there was no evidence Harry was a victim.
Green called the allegations “total speculation” and said some of the information published in the newspapers came from senior Buckingham Palace officials, while other stories were based on details that had already been made public.
Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) lawyer Andrew Green said there was no evidence Prince Harry was the victim of a phone hack.
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However, Harry said confidential details about his breakup with Davy and an argument they had over visiting a strip club were not public and were instead obtained through phone hacking and a tracking device in their car.
The prince also broke royal protocol by saying he believed the UK government and media had hit “rock bottom” and pointed out that his mother, Princess Diana, died before she died in a car accident in 1997 fell victim to telephone hacking attacks.
“I believe that phone hacking was taking place in at least three newspapers on an industrial scale at the time, and there’s no doubt about it,” Harry told the court.
“To make a decision against me and all the other people who stand behind me in their claims given that the Mirror Group has accepted hacking…I would feel a certain level of injustice,” he added.
Harry’s testimony, which ended Wednesday, is part of the seven-week trial that is due to be completed in June. The verdict is expected later in the year.
The lawsuit is among a series of wrongdoing cases the Prince has brought against British news groups, including Rupert Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers and Associated Newspapers, publishers of the Chron.
British tabloids have used phone hacks and illegal means to get stories for years. In 2011, Murdoch-affiliated newspaper News International was found guilty of this practice within the now defunct News of the World newspaper and other British newspapers.
Other papers have since been implicated in similar practices.
In April, it was discovered that Harry’s brother, Prince William, had settled phone hacking allegations against Murdoch’s UK newspaper division in 2020 for a “very large sum” after a secret deal was struck with Buckingham Palace.