Prince Harry has spoken publicly for the first time about his legal battles with the UK tabloids and the “paranoia, fear, worry, concern, distrust” that resulted.
In December 2023, the UK High Court ruled the Duke of Sussex was the victim of phone hacking and other means of “unlawful information gathering” by the publisher Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN).
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Prince Harry addresses his legal battles with the UK tabloids.
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The judge awarded Harry $A267,000 in damages in the ruling.
Seven months on, he spoke of his late mother, Princess Diana, observing she had been through a similar experience with the media and claiming she was “probably one of the first people to be hacked”.
In the interview, for the ITV1 documentary Tabloids On Trial, journalist Rebecca Barry asked him if the hacking had made him paranoid.
“I think paranoia is a very interesting word because yes, then it could be paranoia, but then when you’re vindicated it proves that you weren’t being paranoid,” he responded.
“You know, same with my mother.
“You know, there is evidence to suggest that she was being hacked in the mid-90s, probably one of the first people to be hacked and yet still today, the press, the tabloid press very much enjoy painting her as being paranoid.
“But she wasn’t paranoid, she was absolutely right about what was happening to her. And she’s not around today to find out the truth.”
While it was never legally proven that Princess Diana, who died in a car crash in Paris in 1997, was hacked, it remains a sensitive subject for her youngest son.
He also addressed a story published by MGN which claimed his then-girlfriend Chelsy Davy was about to “dump” him and was part of the court case.
“I think there’s a lot of … paranoia, fear, worry, concern, distrust in the people around you, clearly a headline like that has absolutely no public interest whatsoever,” he said.
Harry called his legal win last year a “monumental victory”.
“To go in there and come out and have the judge rule in our favour was obviously huge,” he said.
“But for him to go as far as he did with regard to, you know, this wasn’t just the individual people.
“This went right up to the top … this was lawyers, this was high executives. And to be able to achieve that in a trial, that’s a monumental victory.”
The trial took place after Harry and wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex stepped back as senior working royals in 2020 and moved to the US.
In the years following, they shared their story publicly, making allegations about the behaviour of senior royals in their Netflix special, Oprah interview and Harry’s memoir Spare, sparking what has become known as the royal rift.
Despite the move, Harry returned to the UK to fight the case and became the first royal to give evidence in a court in 130 years.
“It would be nice if we did it as a family,” Harry told Barry of his legal battles, before explaining his belief his decision to fight the case had “caused … part of a rift”.
In response to the documentary, Mirror Group Newspapers said in a statement: “We welcomed the judgement in December 2023 that gave the business the necessary clarity to move forward from events that took place many years ago.
“Where historical wrongdoing took place, we apologise unreservedly, have taken full responsibility and paid compensation.”
