Prince Harry has accused the publisher of the Daily Mail of wanting to drive him “to drugs and drinking” by placing his life under surveillance, as he told the high court that it continued to “come after” him and his wife. The Duke of Sussex was on the verge of tears as he said Associated Newspapers Ltd (ANL) had continued to make Meghan’s life “an absolute misery” during his litigation against it. He is alleging the publisher used unlawful information gathering to secure stories about him and those close to him.
In a brief speech at the end of his court appearance, the duke accused the publisher of the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday of “delving into every single aspect of my private life, listening in to calls, blagging flights so they can find out where I’m going”. He said he had never believed details of his life should be “open season to be commercialised by these people”, describing the legal action as a “recurring traumatic experience”. Harry said: “Through the course of this litigation, it’s only got worse, not better. I think it’s fundamentally wrong to put all of us through this again when all we wanted was an apology and some accountability.”
With his voice wavering, he added: “They continue to come after me. They have made my wife’s life an absolute misery, my lord.” The Duchess of Sussex sued ANL and won in 2021 after the Mail on Sunday published parts of a personal letter to her father, Thomas Markle. A judge ruled that Meghan had a “reasonable expectation that the contents of the letter would remain private”. She later won a copyright claim over the letter.
Harry gave two hours of testimony as the first witness in the case that he and six other prominent figures have brought against ANL, accusing it of using private investigators, hacking and “blagging” information by unlawful means. The six others are Doreen Lawrence, the mother of Stephen Lawrence; Elton John and his husband, David Furnish; the actors Elizabeth Hurley and Sadie Frost; and the former Liberal Democrat MP Simon Hughes. In a witness statement, Harry accused the publisher of having “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”.
Associated Newspapers denies any wrongdoing, previously describing the claims as “lurid” and “preposterous”. Harry engaged in frosty exchanges with Antony White, ANL’s barrister, during his cross-examination. White repeatedly put it to him that information in the 14 articles he was complaining about had been secured legitimately by journalists through their contacts within the duke’s social circles. The duke insisted he did not have a “leaky” social circle that gave stories to ANL’s journalists. He said the moment he became suspicious about someone, he had to cut them off. White has previously told the court the seven claimants were “clutching at straws in the wind and seeking to bind them together” by asking the court to equate the payment of a private investigator with proof that unlawful means were being used to secure stories.
