Prince Harry has once again contradicted his long-standing insistence on wanting privacy for himself and his family by sitting down with lifestyle and entertainment magazine GQ this week, according to a columnist. Cryptic comments about "some people" not wanting the Sussexes' return to Britain to "work out" were just the start of the bizarre claims he made in the interview, writes Eleanor Burleigh.
Claims of Supporting Journalism
The duke also claimed to be "doing everything I can to try to uplift and support journalism" because of the "experiences" he had growing up in the tabloid media's spotlight. His suggestion that "proper journalism is so important" and bad actors "pretending to be journalists are dragging the whole profession down the drain" appears to be yet another attempt to self-victimise, this time in a way that is blatantly contradicted by his own actions.
Harry faces eventually paying up to £34.5million after losing a High Court case against the publisher of the Daily Mail earlier this year on "speculative and substantially inferential" claims of unlawful information gathering. Associated Newspapers described the ruling as a "devastating critique of an attempt to destroy a newspaper and the reputations of its journalists, editors and executives".
Evidence and Personal Vendetta
Much of Harry's evidence hinged on the "personal impact" of press intrusion without providing evidence that it was carried out unlawfully. While coverage of the Royal Family undoubtedly impacted his life as a child, compounding the loss of his mother at a young age, his dogged pursuit of remuneration from an industry grappling with costs and less-regulated competitors smacks of a personal vendetta.
His loathing of the British press is nothing new - he raged against it in his memoir Spare, with a dislike dating back to the death of his mother, which he says was caused by hounding paparazzi.
Actions Speak Louder
The duke has done very little tangibly to "uplift journalism" beyond feeding the beast with continued briefings - something he has rallied against when carried out by Buckingham Palace - and by continuing to share glimpses into family life, primarily via Meghan's social media accounts.
In fact, sitting down with GQ to espouse the value of journalism is ironic in itself. The conversation was just the latest in a series of reports by lifestyle and entertainment magazines offering controlled, favourable PR coverage, rather than hard-line news gathering.
Harry's pattern of situating blame elsewhere and claiming faultlessness is nothing new. It was evident in his BBC interview last year, in which he alleged an "establishment" conspiracy.
The GQ interview simply reconfirms that Harry and Meghan are living in a dream world, where everybody is out to get them, and no grey area exists in the quest for blinkered righteousness. It's time they learned that you can't champion privacy from the pages of a glossy magazine, and you can't uplift journalism while suing it.
