The prince could face awkward questions about his life before Meghan.
It’s gearing up to be yet another tense week for the British Royal Family. Prince Harry is set to testify on Tuesday against the Mirror newspaper group, which he claims invaded his privacy by hacking his cellphone. The case will spotlight Harry’s life before he met his wife Meghan, and potentially flag very personal details about his time as a bachelor.
Feelings running high
Harry’s testimony is expected to be forceful. His strong feelings about the tabloid press are well-established — and rooted in deep trauma. In his memoir, Spare, as well as a Netflix documentary alongside his wife Meghan, plus numerous interviews, he’s made it clear that he holds the press and the paparazzi — whose frenzied pursuit of his mother, Princess Diana, was fueled by big tabloid cheques — responsible for Diana’s death.
Harry is one of four plaintiffs in the trial. Two others are actors in the popular British soap, Coronation Street. The case is centered around charges that the Mirror Group hacked Harry’s cellphone, plus those belonging to his brother, aides, and a former girlfriend, in the early 2000s. Per The New York Times, one of Harry’s lawyers said in a legal filing that the newspaper group intercepted messages between Harry and his then-girlfriend Chelsy Davy, and published details that imposed tensions on their relationship.
Going against precedent
The prince will be the first senior royal to be cross-examined in court since the 19th century, and he could face awkward questions about his personal life.
Typically, members of the Royal Family prefer to settle out of court, rather than undergo a more arduous (and potentially, far more revealing) legal process. According to a separate legal filing from Harry earlier this year, his older brother William settled a phone-hacking case against the News Group — which is headed by Rupert Murdoch — for a “huge sum of money” in 2020.
Prince Andrew famously settled the civil sexual assault case brought against him in the U.S. by Virginia Giuffre. The eye-watering financial agreement they reached in 2022 was reportedly close to $15 million.
A long-standing feud
Harry made his feelings clear about the U.K. tabloids in 2020, when he and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, sent a letter to the editors of the Sun, Daily Mail, Mirror and Express, telling them that they’d no longer respond to any inquiries from those publications unless it was necessary through their lawyers.
The couple said they refused to “offer themselves up as currency for an economy of clickbait and distortion” and accused the outlets of running stories that are “distorted, false, or invasive beyond reason,” tearing people’s lives apart “for no good reason, other than the fact that salacious gossip boosts advertising revenue.”
