Prince Harry emotionally testifies Daily Mail made Meghan’s life ‘misery’
Prince Harry is emotionally recalling British tabloid the Daily Mail making his wife Duchess Meghan’s life “an absolute misery.”
The Duke of Sussex spoke as a witness in his privacy lawsuit against the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday’s publisher, Associated Newspapers, as he and six others, including Elton John and Elizabeth Hurley, have accused the publisher of violating their privacy by bugging homes and using other illegal information-gathering tactics as early as the 1990s.
Discussing his fight against intrusion from the British press, Harry, 41, decried having to go through the trial. The lawsuit, among several Harry has levied against media outlets, was first filed in 2022.
“I think it is fundamentally wrong to have to put all of us through this again when all we were asking for is an apology and some accountability,” he said. “It is a horrible experience, and the worst of it is that by sitting up here and taking a stand against them … they continue to come after me.”
Harry added, choking up, “They have made my wife’s life an absolute misery.”
Harry has spoken at length about the British media’s longtime impact on his family. He’s cited media intrusion and racist coverage as a central reason he and Meghan left royal life and moved to the United States in 2020, and it is the reason he has not brought his family back to the United Kingdom since. The duke is currently in a fight to regain security for the couple and their young children, citing fears after being chased by paparazzi following a 2021 London charity event.
Meghan herself made an invasion of privacy claim against Associated Newspapers after the Mail on Sunday published extracts of a letter she wrote to her estranged father in 2018. In February 2021, Meghan won and received a symbolic 1 British pound, or around $1.24, for the victory.
The lawsuit, which also includes John’s husband David Furnish and actress Sadie Frost as claimants, accuses the publisher’s papers of producing 14 articles using private detectives, recorded phone conversations, bugged homes and cars, and deceitfully obtained medical records. Associated Newspapers has strongly denied the allegations and says the information was legitimately obtained.
Associated’s lawyer, Antony White, has argued that the publisher’s journalists had ties to his “leaky” social circle. Harry, in a combative exchange, denied the claims. “For the avoidance of doubt, I am not friends with any of these journalists, and I never have been,” Harry said. “My social circles were not leaky. I want to make that absolutely clear.”
Harry’s appearance as a witness is historic. It is the second time the prince has given evidence in a court, after an appearance in 2023, which made him the first royal in 130 years to do so.