Prince Harry says tabloid burglary was to blame for his breakup from Chelsy Davy

Much of Harry’s case against Mirror Group Newspapers centers on leaked details of his relationship with his former girlfriend Chelsy Davy, a Zimbabwean entrepreneur with whom he had an intermittent relationship from early 2004 to mid-2010.

In written testimony submitted to the High Court in London on Tuesday, Harry said his and Ms Davy’s phones were repeatedly hacked while the two were dating. Harry and Mrs. Davy, who were usually in a long-distance relationship, spoke regularly on the phone. Newspaper articles routinely reported private conversations between them that Mirror journalists could have obtained only through illegal means, he said.

Many of Harry’s allegations relate to tabloid coverage of his split from Mrs. Davy, who is now married and goes by the name of Chelsy Yvonne Cutmore-Scott. An article he cites as evidence said Mrs Davy “gagged him on the phone” for flirting with another woman at a party. The details of their telephone communication were not attributed to any source, Harry said in the written testimony.

A second article described “an emotional phone call” in which Mrs Davy asked Harry for a trial divorce. In another, a journalist reported that Harry had “put the phone down” on his father, Charles, after an argument over Mrs Davy.

“I entrusted Chelsy with the most personal information,” he said in the statement. He recalled seeing many missed calls that he later believed to be a sign of hacking.

Harry also said he had “completely no idea” how private details of his and Ms Davy’s holidays off the coast of Mozambique were obtained, and that journalists and photographers were even more likely to arrive at their hotel. He said the two were never alone, away from “the prying eyes of the tabloids”, which put a lot of strain on their relationship and was “the main factor” why they decided to end it.

“We also never could understand how private elements of our lives together found their way into the tabloids, and so our circle of friends got smaller and smaller,” he said. “I remember finding it really hard to trust anyone, which led to bouts of depression and paranoia,” adding that he regrets cutting friends out of his life because he feared they were sources of leaks .

Lawyers for the publisher have argued that most of Harry’s allegations relate to articles published between 1991 and 2011, well beyond the six-year time limit that typically applies to legal complaints of privacy violations. One of the company’s lawyers, Andrew Green, also said in court on Tuesday that “there was no need for the Daily Mirror journalists to use unlawful means” because information about Harry had been published by other news outlets, an allegation Harry disputed.