Prince Harry says the British tabloids are more than a royal pain.
In fact, the Duke of Sussex blames the tabloids and his family’s unwillingness to fight against them as a major reason for the rift between himself and the royal family like dad King Charles III and brother Prince William.
“I think that’s certainly a central piece to it,” the dad of Archie Harrison and Lilibet Diana (with wife Meghan Markle) told ITV’s Rebecca Barry as part of the network’s new documentary Tabloids on Trial. “But that’s a hard question to answer, because anything I say about my family results in a torrent of abuse from the press.”
The new series focuses on the 2011 phone hacking scandal, of which Harry was a victim of hacking and other illegal snooping in the 1990s and 2000s by major U.K. tabloids. Since then, the 39-year-old has brought lawsuits against multiple British publishing companies, including News Group Newspapers and Mirror Group Newspapers.
“I’ve made it very clear that this is something that needs to be done, it would be nice if we did it as a family,” Harry told ITV. “I believe that from a service standpoint and when you’re in a public role, these are the things that we should be doing for the greater good. I’m doing this for my reasons.”
“I think everything that’s played out has shown people what the truth of the matter is,” he added of his family’s choice not to join him in the cause. “For me, the mission continues, but yes, it’s caused part of a rift.”
In April 2023, during litigation against News Group Newspapers, Harry’s legal team alleged in court that Prince William privately settled with the Rupert Murdoch-owned company, per court documents obtained by Reuters at the time.
Though the documents alleged the dad of three—wed to Kate Middleton—settled in order to "avoid the situation where a member of the royal family would have to sit in the witness box and recount the specific details of the private and highly sensitive voicemails that had been intercepted” Harry’s legal team claimed, in documents obtained by NBC News, Harry was unable to bring his case to court originally due to his brother’s secret agreement.
According to the outlet, Harry claimed the deal was authorized by their grandmother Queen Elizabeth II and, while still ongoing, will prevent future litigation from the royals.
A separate lawsuit from Harry against Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), however, has resulted in two victories for him.
Harry's attorney David Sherborne announced during a Feb. 9 hearing that MGN and Harry had reached a settlement that would see the publisher covering his legal costs and damages as well as an interim payment of 400,000 pounds ($505,000) for invading his privacy with phone hacking and other illegal snooping, per NBC News.
The news came two months after Harry was awarded $177,000 in damages after a judge found that phone hacking was "widespread and habitual" at MGN throughout the ‘90s and ‘00s and was covered up company executives.
"As the judge has said this morning,” Harry shared at the time, “we have uncovered and proved the shockingly dishonest way the Mirror Group acted for many years and then sought to conceal the truth."
(E! News and NBC News are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)
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