Prince Harry is due to give evidence in court against the Mirror Group Newspapers over claims its journalists unlawfully obtained information about him. Photo / AP
Prince Harry is due to give evidence in court against the Mirror Group Newspapers over claims its journalists unlawfully obtained information about him. Photo / AP
Prince Harry has claimed the demise of his relationship with former girlfriend Chelsy Davy was the fault of the British tabloid media.
The royal’s accusation has been made as a sign of intent put forward ahead of appearing in a court case alongside multiple claimants suing Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) in Britain’s High Court.
According to news.com.au the prince has accused journalists from tabloid newspapers The Daily Mirror, The Sunday Mirror and The Sunday People of using illegal methods of information gathering, including phone hacking, to run stories about him between 1996 and 2011.
The prince is one of more than 100 claimants including singer Cheryl Cole, actor Ricky Tomlinson and George Michael’s estate. Harry is one of only four who will have their claims heard in court.
According to news.com.au,the articles the prince cites as including unlawfully gathered information coincide with the period in which he was in an on-again off-again relationship with Davy. The couple met in 2004 and broke up in 2010.
Prince Harry and Chelsy Davy's relationship garnered extreme media attention. Photo / Getty Images
Harry’s lawyer, David Sherborne, has been quoted as saying a “constant stream of stories” about Harry and Davy impacted the pair’s chance at a real, sustainable relationship.
Sherborne also quoted the prince’s witness statement, saying, “how little chance his relationship was given because of this”.
It has been reported that as Sherborne presented an article flagged as containing unlawfully gathered information, he asked the judge presiding over the case, Justice Timothy Fancourt, to take note of “how young Prince Harry looks”.
“He is little more than a child, as was Ms Davy at the time,” Sherbourne said.
Chelsy Davy in 2010, shortly before she and Prince Harry finally called it quits. Photo / Getty Images
“As he explains, it was as if they never felt they were on their own, which placed a huge amount of strain on their relationship, and ultimately led Ms Davy to decide a royal life was not for her.
“It also caused their circle of friends to become smaller and smaller, meaning that relationships were lost entirely unnecessarily.
“Who could (begrudge) him for being protective, as he grew up, for future relationships?”
Meanwhile, as proceedings began in court, the prince’s absence on day one was noted by Justice Fancourt and the lawyer representing Mirror Group Newspapers, Andrew Green.
While The Guardian’s media editor, Jim Waterson, described Fancourt as “visibly irritated”, Green claimed to be “deeply troubled” by the royal’s “extraordinary” absence. He accused Harry of potentially “wasting” the court’s time.
Sherbourne explained the prince had wanted to attend his daughter Lilibet’s 2nd birthday at their home in the US and was travelling overnight to be at the proceedings in London the following day.
He noted the prince’s security requirements when it came to travel “obviously” saw him in a “different category” to other witnesses.
But Green, who will “cross-examine” the prince on “33 articles” in which he will attempt to argue information was not sourced illegally said he had “quite a lot to get through”.
“And that cannot be done in one day if I am to put to him even a small number of the public domain documents, and in many cases explain the sources of the information.”
In his opening statement for the prince, Sherbourne said of the articles that underpin Harry’s claims, it was clear stories about the then young royal “drove sales” for the newspapers.
“Articles were the ends. That’s what this is all about. These are the ends, we say, that justified the means for the defendant,” he said.
“At no time of his life was [Harry] safe from these activities and the impact they caused.
“Nothing was sacrosanct or out of bounds, and there was no protection from these unlawful information gathering methods.”
Sherbourne accused MGN of using at least 30 private investigators to obtain information about Prince Harry and refuted claims by the newspaper group that just one was used unlawfully.
He argued that given how lucrative stories about the prince could be coupled with the period of time in question, a period in which MGN was knowingly involved in “widespread” illegal activity, the defendant’s version of events was “plainly implausible”.
David Sherborne, Prince Harry's lead lawyer arrives at the High Court in London, Monday, June 5, 2023. Photo / AP
He said because the journalists in question had used illegal methods of obtaining information for other stories, it made sense that they had done the same when it came to writing about Harry.
“It is the use of these methods by a national newspaper group that has brought him here, not a wider vendetta against the press,” Sherborne said.
“By bringing this claim, he has been able to focus the attention that comes with his position on these activities, and they have been carried out not just by journalists, but they have been concealed by senior members of the board and the legal department.
“The impact this has had on him and others is something he describes graphically in his witness statement.”
But Green argued there is no evidence of Prince Harry’s phone being hacked and that those who had previously admitted to the practice had not identified the duke as a victim.
The trial is ongoing and it is understood MGN’s opening arguments will continue tomorrow.
