When Prince Harry appears in court next week in his lawsuit against a media group he accuses of illegal activities, he will become the first senior British royal to do so in 130 years. Harry, King Charles’ younger son, will testify in London’s High Court as part of a case launched by him and over 100 other celebrities and high-profile figures against Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), publisher of the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror, and Sunday People. It will be the first time a senior royal has given evidence since Edward VII testified as a witness in part of a divorce case in 1870 and 20 years later in a slander trial over a card game, both before he became king.
More than 100 people have filed a lawsuit against MGN
Harry, the fifth in line to the throne, has rarely been out of the news in the previous six months due to legal squabbles with the British press and the publication of his memoir and Netflix documentary series in which he accused other senior royals of cooperating with tabloid publications. His appearance in court is expected to garner the international spotlight. According to David Yelland, a senior communications consultant and former editor of Rupert Murdoch’s Sun tabloid newspaper, which Harry is also suing the royal family has traditionally sought to avoid legal fights since they are powerless to manage the situation.
“These cases are often a case of mutually assured destruction. I don’t think anyone will get out looking great,” he said. More than 100 people have filed a lawsuit against MGN, with Harry and three others chosen as test cases. According to the trial, which began last month, MGN journalists or private investigators hired by them performed phone hacking on an “industrial scale” and other illegal acts to collect information about the prince and the other claimants. According to the claimants’ lawyer, David Sherborne, this was done with the knowledge and agreement of senior editors and executives. MGN is disputing the claims, claiming that senior people denied any knowledge of hacking and had any misconduct kept from them.
According to Harry, his family, and their advisers were engaged in leaking bad tales to protect or promote their own reputations
A writer and biographer of Harry told the court that one among the individuals who knew about the hacking was former editor Piers Morgan, now one of Britain’s most prominent broadcasters and an outspoken critic of the prince and his wife Meghan. Morgan, who has denied any wrongdoing and accused Harry of breaching his own family’s privacy, quit his position as a broadcaster on a TV breakfast show after making controversial statements about Meghan. “It’s hard to escape the notion that he’s using the courts because he knows that when he is in the witness box, he will be believed,” Yelland said. “It is the ultimate interview to be cross-examined by a hostile barrister in the witness box.”
MGN, now owned by Reach, apologized in court documents at the start of the trial and stated that the Sunday People had wrongfully sought information about Harry on one occasion and that he was entitled to compensation. However, it has denied his other charges, stating that he lacked proof to back up his claims. Instead, Buckingham Palace is likely to come up frequently during Harry’s cross-examination, with MGN claiming that some information came from royal aides.
According to MGN papers, one anecdote concerning Harry came during a “regular meal and drinking session” with his father’s former deputy private secretary and Morgan. According to Harry, his family, and their advisers were engaged in leaking bad tales to protect or promote their own reputations. The palace has not commented. Harry will appear before the High Court in London for the second time this year, after joining musician Elton John and others for hearings in March over their lawsuit against the publisher of the Daily and Sunday Mail tabloids.