LONDON — In a rare and closely watched court appearance by a member of the British royal family, Prince Harry on Wednesday took the witness stand in his lawsuit against the publisher of the Daily Mail and denied suggestions that journalists obtained private details of his private life from his friends rather than illegal surveillance and other unlawful means.
Harry, the younger son of King Charles III, is one of seven high-profile plaintiffs — including the musician Elton John and actress Elizabeth Hurley — suing Associated Newspapers, the publisher of the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday. They have alleged widespread unlawful information gathering, including that journalists used private investigators to plant listening devices, hack phones and to illegally obtain private information such as medical and bank records.
Associated Newspapers has strongly denied the allegations, calling them “preposterous smears.”
During morning cross-examination, Antony White, a lawyer for Associated, suggested that some journalists responsible for the articles at issue were part of Harry’s circle of friends.
Harry acknowledged that some in his social circle knew the journalists but testified that his friends were not “loose lipped,” and he countered that if journalists’ sources were legitimate, there would have been no need to hire private investigators.
Asked why he didn’t complain about specific articles at the time they were published, Harry responded: “I wasn’t allowed to complain.”
Associated Newspapers says its journalists relied on lawful sources and that current and former reporters and executives from the Daily Mail will be called as witnesses to refute the allegations.
In a witness statement published by the court on Wednesday, Harry said that growing up as a member of what he calls “the Institution” — the British royal family — he was conditioned to accept a certain level of press intrusion. That tolerance, he said, changed after his relationship with the American actress Meghan Markle became public.
“Following the death of my mother in 1997 when I was 12 years old and her treatment at the hands of the press, I have always had an uneasy relationship with them,” Harry wrote. “However, as a member of the Institution the policy was to ‘never complain, never explain’. There was no alternative; I was conditioned to accept it.”
“However, in late 2016, when my relationship with Meghan, my now wife, became public, I started to become increasingly troubled by the approach of not taking action against the press in the wake of vicious, persistent attacks, harassment and intrusive, sometimes racist articles concerning Meghan,” he added. “The situation got worse when she became pregnant and after our son, Archie, was born.”
Harry testified a day after lawyers for Associated Newspapers finished their opening arguments earlier than expected. He arrived smiling and waved to photographers gathered in the rain outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London.
Dressed in a dark blue suit with a burgundy patterned tie, the prince sat on a wooden bench behind a computer screen as proceedings began.
Harry alleges that 14 articles published between 2001 and 2013 relied on unlawfully obtained information. “It is disturbing to feel that my every move, thought or feeling was being tracked and monitored just for the Mail to make money out of it,” he said in written evidence.
Many of the disputed articles related to his former girlfriend, Chelsy Davy. In his written statement, Harry said it was “upsetting” that Associated newspapers were the first to break much of the news about their relationship, given that other outlets were “competing with unlawful methods of information gathering.”
Referring to a Mail on Sunday article published in 2005 headlined “It’s the Army or me, Harry,” Harry said that the piece included information containing “an extraordinary level of detail.”
“It’s just one part of an endless pursuit, a campaign, an obsession of having every aspect of my life under surveillance so they could get the run on their competitors and drive me paranoid beyond belief, isolating me, and probably wanting to drive me to drugs and drinking to sell more of their papers,” he wrote.
It is highly unusual for a member of the royal family to testify in court. Harry previously gave evidence in his 2023 case against the publisher of the Daily Mirror. Before that, the last senior royal to testify in court was Edward VII, then Prince of Wales, who appeared as a witness in an 1891 case involving cheating at cards.
Harry, who now lives in California, has attended court every day this week. On Wednesday, there were no spare seats in the courtroom, with many journalists watching proceedings from an overflow room.
The trial is expected to last about nine weeks.
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