UK Phone Hacking Lawsuit: Prince Harry Resumes Testimony In Trial Against Tabloids

It was Harry’s first day testifying in the lawsuit he and three other plaintiffs have brought in London against Mirror Group Newspapers, which he has accused of waging war on his family’s privacy for a long time, including through phone hacking .

His testimony will continue on Wednesday. Here are the highlights of day 1.

Prince Harry really dislikes the British news media.

That may not come as a surprise. After all, his battle with the tabloids had been going on for years, so we knew where Harry was coming from. But let there be no doubt about it, Tuesday he had this to say of reporters and editors in written testimony: “How much more blood will stain their typing fingers before someone can put an end to this madness.”

He characterized their behavior as “extremely vicious” and “criminal”, and personally addressed the impact on him, saying “their actions affected every area of ​​my life.” The tabloid coverage, he said, had caused “bouts of depression and paranoia.” And to continue his trial, he said, he was “forced to relive a horrific period in my life.”

The prince is an experienced witness.

The last time a royal was questioned in a British courtroom is presumably 1891, but that doesn’t seem to bother Harry. He kept his head cool and focused and dealt with tough questions with balance.

“Would it be accurate to say that you have a longstanding animosity towards the press because it encroaches on your life?” he was asked at one point early in the hearing. “Yes, that’s right,” Prince Harry replied. Despite the intense whims of Mirror Group lawyer Andrew Green, Harry came across as gentle, measured, precise and unwilling to get caught up in speculation. At one point he looked at the judge, with a clear intensity on his face and in his voice, as he spoke of the distress these stories had caused.

His testimony was very personal.

In his testimony, Harry complained that members of the royal family are being cast in predetermined roles by the tabloids. “You’re either the ‘playboy prince’, the ‘failure’, the ‘dropout’ or, in my case, the ‘thicko’, the ‘trickster’, the ‘underage drinker’, ‘irresponsible drug user’. the list goes on,” he wrote.

This persona came to overshadow his life, he said. Whenever he entered a room, he was “faced with judgments and opinions based on what had been reported about me, true or not.” When he was younger, he said, “he expected people to think, ‘Obviously he’s not going to pass this test, because he’s a dork.'”

Even when the news was positive, like when he passed a military assessment, there was a sting in the story. “It feels like the tabloids were looking for a way to build me up and then tear me down every chance they had.” Press interference, he said, was “the main factor” in the end of his relationship with ex-girlfriend Chelsy Davy. More recently, he said, he and his wife, Meghan, have been “subject to a barrage of horrific personal attacks.”

Harry wants people to see the bigger picture.

Britain’s tabloids must be held accountable, Harry said. “My take is, how can anyone ever trust a media organization that enjoys the freedoms of free press, when their own legal people and administration are covering up the truth?” he asked. “Even the police and the government are afraid to hold them accountable or seek justice against them. They can truly believe they are above the law,” he said.

Harry discussed the specific breaches at the center of the lawsuit, pointing out details cited in a litany of articles that he suggested could only be explained by phone hacking or other forms of illegal newsgathering. He recalls how his whereabouts were suspiciously known to paparazzi, including when he went to meet Mrs. Davy at the airport or visit a nightclub. He recalled how the voicemail symbol on his phone sometimes disappeared before he had a chance to listen to the message, and how friends asked him if he’d heard voicemail messages he’d never seen.

The Mirror says suspicion is not evidence.

The publisher claims that the prince has not provided solid evidence of phone hacking. Some of the articles in question were published before the Prince had a phone, his lawyer argued, telling Prince Harry that no matter how much sympathy there was for him over the disturbing press interference, “it doesn’t necessarily mean it was the result of unlawful activity.”

Mr Green spent much of Tuesday examining the stories Prince Harry had cited, pointing to other possible explanations for how detailed information became known to reporters – including tips, information from friends or aides, other press releases or just official statements from Buckingham Palace.

The lawyer even quoted ‘Spare’, the Prince’s own memoir, in an attempt to refute Harry’s claim that a story about his drug use may have come from illegitimate means. Referring to the book, Mr. Green that the details in at least one story may have come from Buckingham Palace “playing ball” with the tabloid press, using his own words against him.

There were new insights into the battle between the royal family.

Years before he stepped down from official duties, Harry feared his place in the royal family was being undermined. In his testimony, he cited articles based on the rumor that his biological father was James Hewitt, a former cavalry officer and lover of Princess Diana.

At the time, he wrote, “he didn’t really know that my mother had met Major Hewitt until after I was born,” and he called the reports “hurtful, mean, and cruel.” But he also added: “I always kept doubting the motives behind the stories. Were the newspapers bent on questioning the public so that I could be expelled from the royal family?

In a different vein, the testimony showed that the press is not the only British institution that Harry despises. The prince appears not to be a fan of the current British government, which is led by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. “Right now,” wrote Harry, “our country is globally judged by the state of our press and our government—both of which I believe are at an all-time low.”

Megan Special reporting contributed.