Journalist Charlotte Griffiths has expressed regret over her friendship with Prince Harry, stating she wishes she could erase it after leaked Facebook messages were made public during the Duke of Sussex's failed legal battle against the publisher of The Daily Mail. The High Court dismissed all 97 claims brought by Prince Harry against Associated Newspapers, bringing a conclusion to what Griffiths described as a "very stressful four years."
Court Case and Friendship Exposed
Griffiths, the Editor-at-Large of the Mail on Sunday, admitted feeling "cringe" upon reading the Facebook messages she exchanged with Prince Harry. She shared her account on TalkTV, revealing that the correspondence was used as evidence in the privacy case. "He has rewritten history in his own head," she said. "He is a Californian guy, he is very virtuous and very virtue-signalling, and that's fine. One can grow into that kind of person, but you don't eradicate who you were before. And who he was before was a wild child, which is how I got to know him."
Early Friendship and Party Days
Griffiths met Prince Harry in the early 2010s when both were in their 20s. She recalled their time together: "We were partying hard, we were going to nightclubs, we were chatting, we were going to a country house on weekends. And that's all fine." She added, "I'm now a mother-of-three, married, we grew up. You don't just pretend you were a saint from your 20s. We all know that most of us were a little wild in our 20s. And he has just rewritten history, and he can't remember the old him. These Facebook messages are so cringe to read because they're actually a bit of a reminder of how funny, silly and mad we all were by then."
Leaked Messages and Lawsuit
The journalist met Harry at a shooting weekend in Hampshire in 2011. Shortly after, she received a friend request on Facebook Messenger from an account named "Spike Well" with a message: "It's H...in case u were confused by name and picture!! X." Their correspondence included references to a "fun weekend of naughtiness" and messages from Harry containing words like "sugar," "Griff," and "miss our movie snuggles," according to The Times.
Griffiths told Kevin O'Sullivan that she revealed the Facebook messages to provide evidence to save her career after being sued by Prince Harry. "I've kept our friendship for 15 years, and not only did he not say thank you very much for keeping it secret, I would have thought a thank you, and a pat on the back would have been in order, but instead I got slapped with a lawsuit," she said.
