A journalist who featured in Prince Harry's High Court privacy case has said she ghosted the royal for career reasons. Charlotte Griffiths is reported to have met the Duke of Sussex at a party in 2011 and exchanged messages with him via a Facebook profile under the name "Mr Mischief" - a claim the Duke denies.
Why She Stopped Replying
Ms Griffiths explained on the Daily Expresso podcast how the reported relationship ended, telling host JJ Anisiobi that she was the one who cut off communication. "Well, I actually ghosted him... We had these Facebook messages - and there were a few of them. I replied to a few and then in the end I just stopped replying because at that point I was really early on in my career and I still thought of myself as a university graduate with a friendship circle, and I was just like partying," she said.
The reporter added: "I actually think I got a formal job at some point and I sort of realised - hold on a minute, I am actually a journalist. I ended up trailing off and thinking there's a line - that it's difficult. It's just difficult to be a journalist and a friend of the royal circles. So I took a view that I would just let it drift."
Friendship in Their 20s
Ms Griffiths said she fell into a party crowd when she began working as a diary journalist at the Mail in the late 2000s, describing the social scene in London at the time as "wild". She said that as she moved in the same circles as Harry and had mutual friends with the prince, she ended up becoming friends with him when they were in their 20s.
The reporter said she did not always write about the things she saw as she moved in Harry's circle, out of respect for her friends' privacy.
The High Court Case
Asked if she thought Harry's grievances against Associated Newspapers were legitimate, Ms Griffiths said: "Well, I mean, we won on all 97 counts of that court case." During the case, Harry said he met Ms Griffiths once at a party hosted by his friend Arthur Landon, but had no idea who she was until the next day. He denied using the name "Mr Mischief", telling the court he had "no idea" if he had exchanged messages with her on Facebook, adding: "I did not see Ms Griffiths socially."
Harry described it as Ms Griffiths' job to get information out of his friends, but said they were aware of this and how the information could be used. In a frosty exchange, he told the High Court: "My social circles were not leaky. I want to make that absolutely clear."
The Duke was one of seven people who took legal action against the publisher of the Daily Mail, with the trial at the High Court in London lasting 11 weeks. The group - which also includes Sir Elton John, his husband David Furnish and campaigner Baroness Doreen Lawrence - alleged Associated Newspapers carried out or commissioned unlawful activities such as hiring private investigators and accessing private phone conversations. In a 436-page ruling issued on July 7, Mr Justice Nicklin dismissed all of the group's claims. He awarded indemnity costs to Associated Newspapers on August 21 and ordered the group to send an interim payment of £9.5 million within a week.
