London’s High Court saw Prince Harry take the stand on Tuesday, June 6 to testify against The Mirror, The Sunday Mirror and The Sunday People, three arms of the British tabloid press the royal is currently suing. During his testimony, the Duke of Sussex maintained his stance against the three papers, claiming: “Some editors and journalists do have blood on their hands.”
Prince Harry has accused the Mirror newspaper group of hacking his cellphone more than a decade ago, leading to targeted tabloid press against himself and later against his wife Meghan Markle. In court, lawyers representing Mirror Group pressed him about his relationship with the press, including his recollection of certain articles cited in the lawsuit as having been damaging to encounter when he was 12 years old. Prince Harry agreed with a statement claiming he has “a longstanding hostility toward the press because of its intrusion into your life.”
The Duke of Sussex has continued to maintain the position that the tabloids were responsible for the 1997 death of his mother Princess Diana of Wales in a car chase. Last month, Harry and Meghan themselves were involved in a car chase with paparazzi, though the allegedly inflated incident occurred in New York, not England. “There was no time in his life when he was safe from these activities,” David Sherborne, the lawyer leading his legal team, told the court. “Nothing was sacrosanct or out of bounds, and there was no protection from these unlawful information gathering methods.”
Most of Harry’s comments on the matter came in the 55-page written statement submitted to the court and obtained in full by The New York Times. Across the dozens of pages of documents, the prince detailed the impact the tabloids have had on his personal life. On the third page, on the topic of his romantic relationships before and after marrying Meghan, he stated: “Whenever I have been in a relationship, I have always tried to be the best partner that I possibly could but every woman has her limit. Unfortunately, they are not just in a relationship with me but with the entire tabloid press as the third party.”
The voicemail messages Harry claims were illegally obtained by the tabloids included correspondence with his brother William, his mother Diana, his former girlfriend Chelsy Davy, the late television presenter Caroline Flack, his maternal grandmother, a former royal equerry, his private secretary, friends, and more individuals.
Large portions of his statement address how the British tabloids getting ahold of these private interactions in turn impacted, and oftentimes ruined, his relationships with the people involved.
“Numerous newspapers had reported a rumour that my biological father was James Hewitt, a man my mother had a relationship with after I was born,” Harry wrote. “At the time of this article and others similar to it, I wasn’t actually aware that my mother hadn’t met Major Hewitt until after I was born.”
He added: “At the time, when I was 18 years old and had lost my mother just six years earlier, stories such as this felt very damaging and very real to me,” he continued. “They were hurtful, mean and cruel. I was always left questioning the motives behind the stories. Were the newspapers keen to put doubt into the minds of the public so I might be ousted from the Royal family?”
Prince Harry will take the stand again tomorrow for further questioning and cross-examination.