LONDON (AP) — Prince Harry’s legal battle against the British press faces its biggest test yet and threatens to do something he said his family long feared: put a royal on the witness stand to discuss embarrassing revelations.
The first of the Duke of Sussex's three phone hacking lawsuits goes to trial Wednesday. Harry and three lesser-known celebrities are suing the former publisher of the Daily Mirror for alleged invasion of privacy.
The activities in question stretch back more than two decades, when journalists and private eyes intercepted voicemails to snoop on members of the royal family, politicians, athletes, celebrities and even crime victims. The hacking was later revealed, creating a scandal.
Harry is expected to testify in person in June, his lawyer has said. It won’t be his first time in the High Court, following his surprise appearance last month to observe most of a four-day hearing in one of his other lawsuits.
It’s not clear if he’ll show up for opening statements in the trial. Harry breezed through London for Saturday’s coronation of his father, King Charles III, before leaving immediately after the ceremony to fly back to California to be with his family for his son’s birthday.
The prince has waged a war of words against British newspapers in legal claims and in his best-selling memoir “Spare,” vowing to make his life’s mission reforming the media that he blames for the death of his mother, Princess Diana. She died in a car wreck in Paris in 1997 while trying to evade paparazzi.
Harry has also sued the publishers of the Daily Mail and The Sun over the phone hacking scandal that metastasized after a year-long inquiry into press ethics in 2011 revealed that employees of the now-defunct News of the World tabloid eavesdropped on mobile phone voicemails.
Harry has outlined his grievances against the media in court papers, saying the press hounded him since his earliest days and created a narrative that portrayed him as “the ‘thicko,’ the ‘cheat,’ the ‘underage drinker.’” His relationships with girlfriends were wrecked by “the entire tabloid press as a third party.”“Looking back on it now, such behavior on their part is utterly vile,” he said in a witness statement in a similar case. His lawsuits could further roil family relations that have been strained since Harry and his wife, Meghan, left royal life in 2020 and moved to the United States after complaining about racist attitudes from the British press. Mirror Group Newspapers and other publishers have primarily defended themselves by asserting that Harry failed to bring his cases within a six-year year time limit. The duke's lawyer has argued that an exception should be applied because publishers actively concealed the skullduggery. In a stunning revelation last month that dredged up an embarrassing chapter in his father's life, Harry blamed his delay in bringing suit, in part, on his family.