“Prince Harry was reportedly emotional in the witness box at London’s High Court on Wednesday while testifying in an ongoing trial against the publisher of the Daily Mail, Associated Newspapers Limited. The Duke of Sussex’s case was formally kicked off earlier this week, bolstered by six more celebrity claimants who allege “grave breaches of privacy.” Also suing”, — write: www.hollywoodreporter.com
The Duke of Sussex’s case was formally kicked off earlier this week, bolstered by six more celebrity claimants who allege “grave breaches of privacy.” Also suing the outlet’s publisher are Elton John and husband David Furnish, actors Elizabeth Hurley and Sadie Frost and UK political figures Doreen Lawrence and Simon Hughes.
They claim the Daily Mail and its ANL stablemate, the Mail on Sunday, intercepted voicemails, tapped landlines, paid off police officers “with corrupt links to private investigators,” faked medical records and bugged celebrity homes over a 20-year period. ANL has repeatedly denied the “lurid” and “preposterous” allegations.
Harry says journalists, execs and editors used unlawful information gathering while coming up with stories about the royal family member. In his witness statement, the Duke describes having “always had an uneasy relationship” with the press following the death of his mother, Princess Diana, in 1997. “However,” he continued, “as a member of the Institution, the policy was to ‘never complain, never explain.’”
“There was no alternative; I was conditioned to accept it,” said the witness statement obtained by BBC News. “For the most part, I accepted the interest in my performing my public functions.” Harry goes on to say that when his relationship with his now-wife, Meghan Markle, became public, he began to become “increasingly troubled by the approach of not taking action against the press in the wake of vicious persistent attacks on, harassment of and intrusive, sometimes racist articles concerning Meghan.”
Harry, who married the Duchess of Sussex in 2018, was then grilled in the witness box on Wednesday morning by Antony White, the barrister representing ANL. According to the BBC, much of the pair’s exchange was “tetchy.”
Among other things, the Duke accuses journalists of “inventing quotes for the narrative,” threatening his personal security and stalking him to get stories. “They turned up everywhere. It felt like full-blown stalking and constant surveillance,” Harry told the court, adding that Mail on Sunday staff would “turn up at places where no one could possibly know where I was.” When asked why he took so long to complain about the articles being written, Harry answered: “Hindsight is a beautiful thing, Mr. White.”
Prince Harry was interrupted twice by the judge to be told that it is not his job to argue with White but to respond to questions. “You don’t have to bear the burden” of arguing the case, the judge reportedly said.
Throughout the course of his legal battles with the press, Prince Harry added that “it’s only gotten worse, not better” for him in life. All he asks for is an apology and accountability, he continued, and the worst part of sitting in the witness box is that “ANL have made my wife’s life an absolute misery.” The BBC says the Duke was visibly emotional while delivering the final sentence, his voice breaking.
“Having my life, like others, commercialized in this way since I was a teenager, delving into every single aspect of my private life, listening into calls, blagging flights, so that they could find out where I’m going. It was a time then when everybody was in competition with each other. To sit here and go through this all over again and have them give their own defense and claim that I don’t have any right to any privacy is disgusting,” said Prince Harry before he left the witness box.