Prince Harry accuses tabloids of 'destructive role in my growing-up' as he testifies in London courtroom
By Karishma Sarkari|
Prince Harry's historic showdown on Tuesday morning (7.40pm AEST) with the publisher of a British tabloid exposed his deep suspicions of the press but offered little concrete evidence to support accusations of phone hacking that he said caused so much anguish in his life.
However he soon found himself being held to account by a newspaper's lawyer for how he could blame his anguish on articles he couldn't remember reading.
The Duke of Sussex became the first senior member of the royal family to testify in over a century as he held a Bible in his right hand and, in a soft voice, swore to tell the "whole truth and nothing but the truth" in the High Court in London.
READ MORE: Key quotes from Prince Harry's 55-page witness statement as royal testifies in court?
Harry accuses the publisher of the Daily Mirror of using unlawful techniques on an "industrial scale" to score front-page scoops on his life.
Dressed in a dark suit and tie as he sat in the witness box, Harry told Mirror Group Newspapers attorney Andrew Green that he had "experienced hostility from the press since I was born." The prince accused the tabloids of playing "a destructive role in my growing-up."
Green apologised for the one instance Mirror Group has admitted to hiring a private investigator to dig up dirt on Harry, which was not among the claims he has brought. Mirror Group denies or doesn't admit his other allegations.
Green acknowledged that the duke had "lived a life of tabloid life intrusion," and then in a sympathetic tone set about dismantling his case.
READ MORE: Phone hacking caused 'mistrust' between Prince William and Prince Harry early on, lawyers claim
Taken back in time to his 12th birthday and onward through early adulthood, he was confronted with articles that he has complained about and asked to identify the source of wrongdoing by Mirror Group's journalists.
Harry was forced almost immediately to acknowledge that he wasn't certain he read the 33 specific articles about him when they were published.
"Is it realistic, when you have been the subject of so much press intrusion by so many press, both domestic and international, to attribute specific distress to a particular article from 20 years ago, which you may not have seen at the time?" Green asked.
"It isn't a specific article, it is all of the articles," Harry said. "Every single article has caused me distress."
He suggested the articles were the result of phone hacking or some other unlawful information gathering method that "desperate journalists" relied on for any news nugget about his life.
The 38-year-old son of King Charles III is the first senior British royal since the 19th century to face questioning in a court. An ancestor, the future King Edward VII, appeared as a witness in a trial over a gambling scandal in 1891.
Harry has said the royal family avoided legal entanglements to prevent having to be put in the witness box.
The case dates from 1996 to 2011 กช a period when phone hacking by tabloid journalists was later discovered to have been widespread. It led to revelations of more intrusive means such as phone tapping, home bugging and using deception to obtain flight information and medical records.
Harry's fury at the U.K. press runs through his memoir, Spare. He blames paparazzi for causing the car crash that killed his mother, and said intrusion by the U.K. press, including allegedly racist articles, led him and his wife, Meghan, to flee to the U.S. in 2020 and leave royal life behind.
When pressed to be specific about what information had been illegally harvested, Harry repeatedly told the lawyer that the source of information in stories was "highly suspicious" or that he should ask the reporter who wrote the article.
He said some of the journalists had been known for hacking or that there were invoices to third parties, including private investigators known for snooping, around the time of the articles. He suggested other records had been destroyed.
Time and again, as Green laid out evidence to the contrary and what was described by Harry as a nefarious act had a more innocent explanation.
The source of a 1996 story that mentioned how badly he was taking his parents' divorce appeared to have come from public comments his mother, the late Princess Diana, had given to reporters.
Information about his 18th birthday came from his own mouth and, apparently, palace press people who set up an interview with him and the Press Association, which was widely used or quoted in many papers, including the Daily Mirror.
A Daily Mirror story headlined "Snap, Harry breaks thumb like William" in 2000 came from a spokesperson at his father's office, which had given the Press Association the news the day before.
Harry remained steadfast that the paper's former royal editor, Jane Kerr, who is due to testify Wednesday, relied on some unlawful means to report the story.
"Probably herself or she got someone else to do her dirty work for her," he said.
When asked whose phone she hacked, Harry suggested it could have been the doctor's.
"Are you not in the realms of total speculation?" Green said.
"No, I do not believe so," Harry said.
Harry said the articles caused him to become depressed and paranoid, distrustful of friends, who he feared were feeding information to the media. His circle of friends shrank, relationships fell apart and he felt constantly in the glare of the journalists who were shaping the narrative of his life.
"I genuinely feel that in every relationship that I've ever had จC be that with friends, girlfriends, with family or with the army, there's always been a third party involved, namely the tabloid press," Harry said in a written witness statement released Tuesday.
Setting out the prince's case, his lawyer, David Sherborne, said Monday that from Harry's childhood, British newspapers used skullduggery to cover all facets of his life กช from school injuries to experimenting with marijuana and cocaine, to ups and downs with girlfriends.
"Nothing was sacrosanct or out of bounds" for the tabloids, the lawyer said.
Green said Monday that there was "simply no evidence capable of supporting the finding that the Duke of Sussex was hacked, let alone on a habitual basis."
Mirror Group has paid more than 100 million pounds ($125 million) to settle hundreds of unlawful information-gathering claims and printed an apology to phone hacking victims in 2015.
Green asked Harry to identify what evidence he had of phone hacking in specific articles, and Harry repeatedly said he'd have to ask that question of the journalist who wrote it. He continually insisted that the manner in which information had been obtained was highly or incredibly suspicious.
He said some of the journalists had been known for hacking or that there were invoices to third parties, including private investigators known for snooping, around the time of the articles.
When asked how reporters could have hacked his phone for an article about his 12th birthday กช a time when he admitted he didn't have a mobile phone กช he suggested they may have hacked the phone of his mother, the late Princess Diana.
"That's just speculation you've come up with now," Green suggested.
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The attorney then pointed out that a reference in the same article to him taking his parents' divorce badly was obvious.
"Like most children, I think, yes," Harry said.
But the prince said it was not legitimate to report such information and "the methods in which it was obtained seem incredibly suspicious."
Green then pointed out that his mother previously made public comments to reporters about the difficulties her children faced after the divorce.
The Duke of Sussex arrived at the High Court in London around 7pm AEST in a black SUV and entered a modern wing of the court past dozens of photographers and TV cameras.
In a written witness statement published on Tuesday after the royal entered the witness box, Harry said he felt "as though the tabloid press thought that they owned me absolutely".
"I genuinely feel that in every relationship that I've ever had จC be that with friends, girlfriends, with family or with the army, there's always been a third party involved, namely the tabloid press," he said.
Harry has made a mission of holding the UK press to account for what he sees as its hounding of him and his family.
Setting out the prince's case in court Monday, his lawyer, David Sherborne, said that from Harry's childhood, British newspapers used hacking and subterfuge to mine snippets of information that could be turned into front-page scoops.
He said stories about Harry were big sellers for the newspapers, and some 2,500 articles had covered all facets of his life during the time period of the case กช 1996 to 2011 กช from injuries at school to experimenting with marijuana and cocaine to ups and downs with girlfriends.
"Nothing was sacrosanct or out of bounds" for the tabloids, the lawyer said.
Hacking กช the practice of guessing or using default security codes to listen to celebrities' cellphone voice messages กช was widespread at British tabloids in the early years of this century.
It became an existential crisis for the industry after the revelation in 2011 that the News of the World had hacked the phone of a slain 13-year-old girl.
Owner Rupert Murdoch shut down the paper and several of his executives faced criminal trials.
Mirror Group has paid more than ?100 million ($186 million) to settle hundreds of unlawful information-gathering claims, and printed an apology to phone hacking victims in 2015.
But the newspaper denies or has not admitted any of Harry's claims, which relate to 33 published articles.
Mirror Group's attorney, Andrew Green, said there was "simply no evidence capable of supporting the finding that the Duke of Sussex was hacked, let alone on a habitual basis."
Green said he plans to question Harry for a day and a half.
Harry had been expected in court Monday for the opening of the hacking case, the first of his several lawsuits against the media to go to a full trial.
He was absent because he'd taken a flight Sunday from Los Angeles after the birthday of his two-year-old daughter Lilibet, Sherborne said กช to the evident chagrin of the judge, Timothy Fancourt.
"I'm a little surprised," said Fancourt, noting he had directed Harry to be prepared to testify.
Harry's fury at the UK press กช and sometimes at his own royal relatives for what he sees as their collusion with the media กช runs through his memoir, Spare, and interviews conducted by Oprah Winfrey and others.
He has blamed paparazzi for causing the car crash that killed his mother, Princess Diana, and said harassment and intrusion by the UK press, including allegedly racist articles, led him and his wife, Meghan, to flee to the US in 2020 and leave royal life behind.
While Harry's memoir and other recent media ventures have been an effort to reclaim his life's narrative, which has largely been shaped by the media, he will have no such control when he faces cross-examination in a courtroom full of reporters taking down every word.
Here's what you need to know about the trial.
What is the case about?
The Duke of Sussex and three other claimants representing dozens of celebrities are suing MGN, accusing its titles of obtaining private information by phone hacking and through other illicit means, including private investigators, between 1991 and 2011.
The trial started on May 10, and is expected to last seven weeks.
MGN is contesting most of the allegations, arguing in its court filings that some claims have been brought too late and that in all four cases there is insufficient evidence of phone hacking.
In court documents published last month, the publisher did apologise for one instance of unlawful information gathering nearly 20 years ago. That incident involved a private investigator, who was paid ?75 ($140) in 2004 by the Sunday People, a tabloid owned by the same group, to gather information about the Duke of Sussex while at a London nightclub.
Harry's lawyer David Sherborne has said his claim against MGN, which covers incidences from 1995 to 2011, is "significant not just in terms of time span but in the range of activity it covers."
Harry was subject to the most "intrusive methods of obtaining personal information," Sherborne said, arguing that "no one should be subjected to that." The "unlawful methods" were "habitual and widespread" among the journalists, Sherborne added.
What happened on Monday?
A huge crowd of media gathered outside the doors to the High Court on Monday morning, hoping for a glimpse of the duke จC whom it was later revealed wouldn't be present until Tuesday.
Inside the court, Sherborne laid out parts of Harry's case, introducing some of the articles that will be considered at the trial.
The barrister said that unlawful activities to gather information "acted like a web" around Harry and took place "beneath the radar" at MGN newspapers, according to the PA Media news agency.
The first article, from September 1996, was headlined "Diana so sad on Harry's big day," and detailed a visit from Princess Diana to see Harry on his 12th birthday, according to PA Media. MGN denies was the result of unlawful activity and argues the information was in the public domain already, PA reported.
Another story discussed touched on the relationship between Harry and Prince William in 2003.
What will Harry say?
Harry can expect a tough examination from the publisher's lawyers in the witness box this week.
The prince alleges that about 140 articles published in titles belonging to the group contained information gathered using unlawful methods, and 33 of those articles have been selected to be considered at the trial, according to PA Media.
It's likely that details of those stories will be parsed over at great length.
And while this is Harry's first appearance in a court case against the British media, it may not be his last.
The case against MGN is one of several lawsuits filed by Harry and his wife, Meghan, in their long-running battle with British tabloids, which they have accused of breaches of privacy and publishing false stories.
The pair has filed at least seven lawsuits against British and US media organizations since 2019, including Rupert Murdoch's News Group Newspapers (NGN), according to Reuters. NGN publishes the Sun and used to produce News of the World, which was shut down in 2011 over a phone hacking scandal.
In March, Harry appeared at a court hearing in his case against Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) over allegations of unlawful information gathering, which that group has denied.
How will this impact the royals?
Harry's appearance in court is extremely rare. This is thought to be the first time a senior British royal will personally appear since 2002, when Princess Anne pleaded guilty after her dog bit two children in a Windsor park, according to PA Media.
It is more than 130 years since a senior member of the royal family gave evidence in court, when Edward VII was a witness in a slander trial over a card game in 1891, before he became king, Reuters reported.
It's not yet clear whether Harry's testimony will touch on other royals or his relationships with members of the family. But his brother and heir to the throne, Prince William, has recently been brought into the fray in another of Harry's cases.
Documents published in April as part of Harry's lawsuit against NGN allege that the publisher privately reached an undisclosed settlement with Prince William over historical phone hacking claims. It is unclear how Prince Harry is aware of his brother's settlement, but in his court response he writes that his information is based on a redacted document through which he is inferring that Prince William signed onto the agreement.
Officials at Kensington Palace, which represents Prince William, told CNN it does not comment on legal proceedings. Buckingham Palace reiterated that same position. Prince Harry states that his late grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, was aware of settlement talks.
Whether this week's case will similarly bring questions for other members of the royal family remains to be seen. But it marks a watershed moment in Harry's efforts against major players in Britain's media, and his appearance is likely to dominate headlines in the days to come.
- Reported with CNN and Associated Press.?
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