By Lauren Said-Moorhouse, Lauren Kent, NCS
London (NCS) — Prince Harry struggled to carry again his feelings as he wrapped up his proof at a London courtroom on Wednesday, as a part of his lawsuit in opposition to the writer of the Daily Mail over allegations of illegal info gathering, saying “they have made my wife’s life an absolute misery.”
The Duke of Sussex, 41, advised London’s High Court he “wouldn’t have been able to complain” concerning the tabloid tales which are central to his declare on the time of publication “because of the institution I was in.”
Prince Harry returned from the United States to supply testimony for the civil case, which began on Monday, and is predicted to final 9 weeks.
He is one of seven high profile figures within the United Kingdom – together with Elton John, David Furness and Elizabeth Hurley – accusing Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) of allegedly gathering info via illegal practices such as tasking personal investigators to interact in voicemail interception, cellphone tapping and “blagging” of delicate personal information via deception.
The tabloid writer has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, insisting that its journalists reported their tales utilizing professional sources. It additionally asserts that the group of plaintiffs introduced the claims too late.
The duke arrived on the Royal Courts of Justice round 11 a.m. (6 a.m. ET) on Wednesday, smiling and waving to crowds that had gathered exterior. He has attended proceedings over the previous two days, sitting behind his authorized group together with a number of different claimants, earlier than changing into the primary to testify – his second such courtroom look in three years.
In a separate lawsuit in 2023, he turned the primary senior British royal to offer proof on a witness stand in additional than 130 years.
The duke’s particular declare relies on 14 articles authored between 2001 and 2013, primarily written by two journalists, which brought about him “great distress” and had “no meritorious public interest,” in line with written submissions from his authorized group. The duke alleges that these tales contained info that was gathered via nefarious ways.
In his witness assertion, Harry stated he has “always had an uneasy relationship” with the press however “there was no alternative; I was conditioned to accept it.”
He stated that the tales he has complained about are “part of an endless pursuit, a campaign, an obsession of having every aspect of my life under surveillance so they could get the run on their competitors and drive me paranoid beyond belief, isolating me, and probably wanting to drive me to drugs and drinking to sell more of their papers.”
The duke additionally stated that he introduced the case as a result of he was “determined to hold Associated accountable, for everyone’s sake” and that he believed his declare was “in the public’s interest.”
Royal denies mates would have leaked info
Under cross-examination, Harry at occasions engaged in tense exchanges with ANL’s lawyer Antony White, such as when he requested about whether or not a few of the journalists who wrote tales might need been spending time along with his social circle, which the barrister described as “leaky.”
White steered that the reporters have been attending the identical occasions he was, and as a consequence, might need been in a position to acquire info for tales via these avenues, which the duke disputed.
“Having lived within this system my entire life… the kind of information that ends up in these articles is not the kind of thing that I would have been talking about,” Harry stated from the witness field.
“I’m not friends with any of these journalists. I never have been,” he added.
White additionally steered that Harry might have complained about these tales on the time of their publication however selected to not. Harry responded by saying he “wasn’t allowed to complain,” citing the royal household’s adage: “Never complain, never explain.”
As the duke concluded his proof on Wednesday afternoon, he was visibly emotional as he spoke concerning the toll of pursuing the case in opposition to ANL, describing it as “a recurring traumatic experience.”
He stated that he thought it was “fundamentally wrong to put all of us through this again when all we were asking for was an apology and some accountability.”
He continued, “It’s a horrible experience and the worst of it is that by taking a stand and talking about it here…they have made my wife’s life an absolute misery.”
Following the listening to, Prince Harry stated in a assertion: “Today we reminded the Mail Group who is on trial and why.”
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the duke stated, “Today’s cross-examination was revealing in its weak spot: assertive in tone, however collapsing instantly underneath scrutiny from Prince Harry.
“Associated couldn’t wait to get him off the stand, questioning him for just 2 hours and avoiding 10 of his 14 articles entirely.”
In courtroom on Tuesday, White stated the group’s claims in opposition to the corporate have been “threadbare” and argued that journalists working for ANL present a “compelling account of a pattern of legitimate sourcing.”
He additionally stated that journalists’ funds to personal investigators, which have been cited by the duke’s authorized group, have been “examples of clutching at straws in the wind and seeking to bind them together in a way that has no proper analytical foundation.”
The duke has lengthy railed in opposition to Britain’s tabloid media and the ways it has used to cowl his life, participating in a yearslong battle with a variety of publishers. In earlier showdowns in opposition to the tabloid press, Harry efficiently launched authorized challenges in opposition to Rupert Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers (NGN) and Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), after which he obtained apologies, admission of wrongdoing and damages.
The-NCS-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
NCS’s Max Foster contributed reporting.