An emotional Prince Harry tells court how publisher made Meghan’s life ‘a misery’
London, Jan 22: Prince Harry struck a defensive tone at the start of his testimony on Wednesday against the publisher of the Daily Mail tabloid newspaper and left the witness box hours later on the brink of tears.
After disputing that reporters used legitimate sources to publish revealing details of his life, he provided an emotional glimpse into the toll that a life in the spotlight and his battle against the British media had taken on him and his family.
“They continue to come after me, they have made my wife’s life an absolute misery,” he said as he choked back tears in London’s High Court.
Harry and six other prominent figures, including the singer Sir Elton John and actor Elizabeth Hurley, allege that Associated Newspapers Ltd invaded their privacy by engaging in a “clear, systematic and sustained use of unlawful information gathering” for two decades, attorney David Sherborne said.
The publisher has denied the allegations, called them preposterous and said the roughly 50 articles in question were reported with sources that included close associates willing to inform on their famous friends. It is expected to name sources during the nine-week trial.
Paranoid beyond belief
Harry said in his 23-page witness statement that he was distressed and disturbed by intrusions by the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday into his early life and it made him “paranoid beyond belief.”
It was Harry’s second time testifying after he bucked House of Windsor tradition and became the first senior royal to testify in a court in well over a century when he took the stand in his similar lawsuit against the publisher of the Daily Mirror in 2023.
Harry held a small Bible in his right hand in London’s High Court and swore to “almighty God that the evidence I shall give will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.” Under the English court practice, Harry presented written testimony of his claims and after asserting it was true under oath, he was immediately put under cross-examination.
Defence lawyer Antony White began to put questions to Harry to determine if the sourcing of the articles, in fact, had come from royal correspondents legitimately working their sources at official events or from friends or associates of the prince.
Harry denied suggestions he was friendly with journalists who covered the royal family or that his friends gave details about him to the tabloids.
“My social circles were not leaky,” the British royal declared.
Increasingly defensive
His curt replies and efforts to explain what it’s like living under what he called “24-hour surveillance” eventually brought the intervention of the judge, who told him not to argue with the defense lawyer “You don’t have to bear the burden of arguing the case today,” Justice Matthew Nicklin told the frustrated prince.
As Harry became increasingly defensive, White said: “I am intent on you not having a bad experience with me, but it is my job to ask you these questions.” Harry suggested that details in articles had come from eavesdropping on his phone calls or having private investigators snoop on him. He said journalist Katie Nicholl had used the term “unidentified source” deceptively to hide unlawful measures of investigation. (AP)
