Prince Harry appears in U.K. court to testify against tabloid publisher

Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, appeared in a U.K. court Tuesday to testify and be cross-examined as part of his lawsuit against Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN). The 38-year-old second son of Britain’s King Charles III is suing the tabloid publisher over unlawful information gathering, including alleged voicemail hacking.

MGN’s lawyer, Andrew Green, was questioning Harry on Tuesday about the details of the articles referred to in his suit.

“I genuinely feel that in every relationship that I’ve ever had — be that with friends, girlfriends, with family or with the army, there’s always been a third party involved, namely the tabloid press,” Harry said in a lengthy written witness statement that was released Tuesday as he appeared in London’s High Court. 

Harry is the first senior member of Britain’s royal family to appear in a court to give testimony and face cross-examination since the 19th century. He had been instructed to attend the first day of court proceedings on Monday, in case he was needed, but was not there. The Associated Press quoted Harry’s lawyer as saying the prince had flown out Sunday from Los Angeles, where he lives with his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, and their children, after celebrating his daughter’s birthday.

The judge, Justice Timothy Fancourt, told the court on Monday that he was “a little surprised” by Harry’s absence on the first day. The lawyer representing MGN, Andrew Green, said he was “deeply troubled” by the prince’s non-appearance.

Why is Prince Harry in court?

The suit, involving test cases from Harry and three other well-known British claimants, alleges that journalists working for MGN gathered information about the prince unlawfully, including by hacking into voicemails. It involves 207 newspaper articles published between 1991 and 2011 — 33 of which refer to Harry.

The claimants argue that senior executives, including Piers Morgan — who edited the Daily Mirror newspaper from 1995 to 2004 — knew of the illegal activities. Morgan has denied any knowledge of illegal activities.

MGN has previously admitted that phone hacking took place at its tabloids, but its lawyer denies that 28 of the 33 articles involving Harry used unlawfully-gathered information. He said the group had “not admitted” that the other five articles involved unlawful information gathering, according to the BBC.

In his witness statement, Harry said, “the tabloids have known the challenges and mental health struggles that I have had to deal with throughout my childhood and adult life and for them to then play on that and use it to their own advantage, I think is, well, criminal.”

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