Prince Harry in witness box at High Court for privacy case

The duke becomes the first British royal to give evidence since the 1890s

A court artist's sketch of Prince Harry being cross-examined by Andrew Green KC on Tuesday. AP
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Prince Harry entered the witness box in his legal case against a newspaper group on Tuesday, becoming the first British royal in more than 130 years to take the stand.

Wearing a dark blue suit, the 38-year-old Duke of Sussex told the court he had experienced hostility from the press since he was born and set out a list of grievances against the media.

In taking the stand, he became the first British royal to give evidence since the 1890s, when Edward VII was a witness in a slander trial in 1891 over a card game before he became king. The cross-examination is expected to last until Wednesday.

The duke is among more than 100 people who are suing Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), publisher of the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and Sunday People tabloids, accusing them of widespread unlawful activities between 1991 and 2011.

They include actors, sports stars, celebrities and people who simply had a connection to high-profile figures.

The duke was selected at an earlier hearing as one of four test cases for the trial which began on May 10.

His individual case against MGN got under way on Monday.

On Tuesday, David Sherborne, the duke's barrister, asked him to confirm that his preferred way of being addressed, after first being referred to as "your royal highness", was Prince Harry, to which he replied "yes".

Andrew Green KC, representing MGN, began his cross-examination of the duke by saying he recognised that by "having to be asked questions on such matters can only be unpleasant", before repeating the publisher's "unreserved apology" to him at the outset of the trial.

Under cross-examination, he was questioned about his attitude towards the media and asked if he had a "long-standing" hostility towards the press.

"Yes, that's correct," the duke said.

Mr Green asked if this hostility had pre-dated the discovery that unlawful methods had been used by some of the press.

The duke replied: "Yes ... because the unlawful methods were hidden from me as well as everybody else."

He added that it "certainly shocked me".

In his initial witness statement, he said: "How much more blood will stain their typing fingers before someone can put a stop to this madness?"

Mr Green asked if the duke meant "blood on their hands" in relation to a specific article and requested further clarification.

Prince Harry said: "Some of the editors and journalists that are responsible for causing a lot of pain, upset and in some cases, speaking personally, death."

He then said his reference to "blood on their hands" was "more broadly towards the press" in general and added: "I haven't named the journalists in that particular paragraph."

The prince also hit out at what he described as close ties between the UK media and government.

"On a national level, at the moment, our country is judged globally by the state of our press and our government, both of which I believe are at rock bottom," he said.

"Democracy fails when your press fails to scrutinise and hold the government accountable, and instead choose to get into bed with them so they can ensure the status quo."

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s official spokesman told reporters it would not be appropriate to comment on an ongoing legal case.

Prince Harry arrives at UK court for rare royal appearance

Prince Harry arrives at UK court for rare royal appearance

In his 55-page statement, Prince Harry said:

  • It was "no secret" he has had, and continues to have, a "very difficult relationship" with the tabloid press
  • As a teenager and in his early 20s, he was "playing up to a lot of the headlines and stereotypes" the press wanted to pin on him
  • The behaviour of the media was "utterly vile"
  • He felt as if he lived under 24-hour surveillance
  • The alleged unlawful actions of MGN journalists "affected every area" of his life
  • He now believes that both his and his associates voicemail messages were hacked by MGN, and that it had also used "other unlawful means" to obtain private information
  • He felt "physically sick" to learn there were eight payments to private investigators in relation to his late mother, Diana, Princess of Wales; 135 separate payments related to him; and another 154 for his associates
  • MGN's alleged intrusion into his life contributed to "a huge amount of paranoia"

Along with the MGN case, the prince is simultaneously the subject of a federal court hearing in Washington DC about his US visa application on Tuesday, following admissions in his memoir that he took drugs in the past.

American conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation wants to know how he answered questions about drug taking, which could have rendered his application inadmissible under US law.

Last month, the prince lost a court challenge against the Home Office over his security arrangements when visiting the UK.

Harry sips day one

Prince Harry missed Monday's proceedings, with the court being told he had flown to the UK from Los Angeles the previous night, as he was celebrating his daughter Lilibet's second birthday.

Presiding judge Mr Justice Fancourt said he was "a little surprised" to hear the duke would not be attending court on Monday.

Prince Harry’s fury at the UK press – and sometimes at his own royal relatives for what he sees as their collusion with the media – runs through his memoir Spare and interviews conducted by Oprah Winfrey and others.

He has blamed paparazzi for causing the car crash that killed his mother, Princess Diana, and said harassment and intrusion by the UK press, including allegedly racist articles, led him and his wife Meghan to flee to the US in 2020 and leave royal life behind.

British royals in court - in pictures

The claimants involved in the suit against MGN say the media group's journalists or private investigators commissioned by them carried out phone hacking on an “industrial scale”, obtaining private details by deception and carrying out other illicit acts to uncover information about them.

Their lawyers say senior editors and executives knew about and approved of the behaviour.

MGN is contesting the claims and denies senior figures were aware of wrongdoing. It also argues some of the lawsuits were brought too late.

The duke's claim is being heard alongside three other "representative" claims during a trial which began last month and is due to last six to seven weeks.

The three other representative claimants are Coronation Street actor Michael Turner, known professionally as Michael Le Vell, who is best known for playing Kevin Webster in the long-running soap, former Coronation Street actress Nikki Sanderson, and comedian Paul Whitehouse's former wife Fiona Wightman.

Hacking – the practice of guessing or using default security codes to listen to celebrities’ mobile phone voice messages – was widespread at British tabloids in the early years of this century.

It became an existential crisis for the industry after the revelation in 2011 that the News of the World had hacked the phone of a murdered 13-year-old girl. Owner Rupert Murdoch shut down the paper and several of his executives faced criminal trials.

MGN has paid more than £100 million ($125 million) to settle hundreds of unlawful information-gathering claims and printed an apology to phone-hacking victims in 2015.

But the newspaper denies or has not admitted to any of Prince Harry's claims, which relate to 33 published articles.

Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, through the years - in pictures

Updated: June 06, 2023, 2:20 PM