{"id":711504,"date":"2026-01-21T20:12:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T20:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/711504\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T20:12:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T20:12:12","slug":"britains-prince-harry-gives-emotional-testimony-about-effects-of-uk-press-coverage-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/711504\/","title":{"rendered":"Britain\u2019s Prince Harry gives emotional testimony about effects of UK press coverage \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Britain\u2019s Prince Harry<\/a> became visibly emotional on Wednesday as he testified in London<\/a>\u2019s high court about the effects of what he called intrusive news coverage on his life and that of his wife, Meghan Markle<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Harry was giving evidence in his case against Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL), the publisher of The Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday. He, along with Elton John<\/a> and his husband David Furnish, campaigner Doreen Lawrence, politician Simon Hughes, and actresses Sadie Frost and Liz Hurley are all bringing legal action against ANL over allegations of unlawful information gathering.<\/p>\n

This includes claims that information for articles was obtained by carrying out or commissioning unlawful activities such as phone tapping and \u201cblagging\u201d private records.<\/p>\n

Harry told the court on Wednesday he does not have \u201cleaky\u201d social circles, as he insisted he was unable to complain about press coverage because of the royal institution.<\/p>\n

In a frosty exchange between Harry and lawyers acting on behalf of ANL, he told the court: \u201cMy social circles were not leaky, I want to make that absolutely clear.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that if he became suspicious of someone, \u201cI would have to cut contact with this person\u201d.<\/p>\n

ANL has strongly denied wrongdoing and is defending the claims.<\/p>\n

In his witness statement for the trial, Harry said he has always had an \u201cuneasy relationship\u201d with the press, adding: \u201cHowever, as a member of the institution the policy was to \u2018never complain, never explain\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking from the witness box at the Royal Courts of Justice in London on Wednesday, Harry told the court: \u201cWhen you are in a situation like this, the moment something private is out, your circle of trust and knowledge decreases over time.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cThe stuff in these articles is not the kind of stuff I would talk about openly.\u201d<\/p>\n

The duke said it would have been \u201cimpossible to complain\u201d about certain stories because \u201cthousands\u201d of articles were being written about him by newspapers.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cIf you complain, they double down on you, in my experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harry insisted he did not complain about some of the articles at the centre of his claim \u201cbecause of the institution I was in\u201d.<\/p>\n

Antony White, representing ANL, said the duke \u201cdid not complain and no complaint was made on your behalf\u201d about articles Harry was aware of, adding: \u201cThat is because you believed, at the time that the articles were published, insofar as you saw them, that the information they contained came from legitimate sources.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harry replied: \u201cTo a certain extent, but I would not have been able to complain about them anyway, because of the institution I was in.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the stories complained about by Harry concerned \u201cconfidential discussions\u201d he had after a photo of a dying Diana, Princess of Wales was published in the Italian press \u2013 an article he described as \u201cbeyond cruel\u201d.<\/p>\n

In his written evidence, Harry described an article published in the Daily Mail in July 2006 as \u201creally disgusting\u201d, saying he was having private discussions with his brother, the now-prince of Wales, Prince William.<\/p>\n

Other articles concerned his former girlfriend Chelsy Davy \u2013 with Harry telling the court he was \u201creally worried something bad was going to happen\u201d when he was in a relationship with her.<\/p>\n

He said in written evidence: \u201cI was never suspicious of Chelsy in relation to stories like this, but I was of her friends. If I saw this story at the time, I would have been very frustrated and angry.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would have questioned how Associated found out this information. But, at the same time, I would have felt like I had to accept this as the reality of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before his evidence to the court began, a source close to Harry accused ANL of \u201cgame-playing and dirty tricks\u201d by failing to inform the court their opening argument would \u201clast less than two hours\u201d.<\/p>\n

The source continued: \u201cThey think that by pulling the schedule forward 24 hours they are giving prince Harry less time to prepare \u2013 he\u2019s been preparing for this moment for the last three years.<\/p>\n

\u201cSafe to say, he\u2019s ready.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response, an ANL spokesperson said: \u201cPrince Harry has been in London since the weekend ready to give evidence in this case, which he launched three-and-a-half years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t intend to dignify this briefing by the other side with any further comment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The trial is due to conclude in March, with a judgment due in writing at a later date. \u2013 PA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Britain\u2019s Prince Harry became visibly emotional on Wednesday as he testified in London\u2019s high court about the effects…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":711505,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5018,3,4],"tags":[748,2866,393,4884,257,1281,1144,447,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-711504","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"category-uk","9":"category-united-kingdom","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-elton-john","12":"tag-england","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-london","15":"tag-meghan-markle","16":"tag-northern-ireland","17":"tag-prince-harry","18":"tag-scotland","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-united-kingdom","21":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115934917009193694","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=711504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/711505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=711504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=711504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=711504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}