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Prince Harry choked back tears as he said the Daily Mail had made his wife Meghan’s life “an absolute misery,” as he appeared in the witness box Wednesday at London’s High Court in his privacy case against the paper’s publisher.
The Duke of Sussex, 41, and six other plaintiffs, including singer Elton John, are suing the Mail’s publisher, Associated Newspapers, for breaching their privacy from the early 1990s until 2010.
The Associated Press, which also publishes the Mail on Sunday, called the allegations “absurd smears,” saying its reporters had legitimate sources of information, including celebrities’ friends and acquaintances.
Since in 2023 he became the first king in 130 years to give evidence in court during his impeachment with the media, the youngest son of King Charles gave a contradictory answer to the questions from Antony White, the Associated lawyer, but he became emotional when asked about the impact of the case.
“I think it’s not fair that we all have to go through this again when all we were asking for was an apology and accountability,” Harry told the court.
“It’s a terrible incident, and the worst thing is that by staying up here and standing against them … they continue to follow me.”
Annoyed, Harry added: “They have made my wife’s life a complete misery.”
He has previously dismissed White’s claims that reporters at his paper are close to the “leaking” community.
“For the avoidance of doubt, I am not a friend of any of these reporters and never have been,” Harry said in an interview with White. “My social media circles were not leaking. I want to clarify that.”
‘I traded my private life’
The prince’s case centers on 14 counts that his legal team says were the product of illegal information gathering, including hacking voicemails, hacking landline phones and obtaining private information by deception, known as “snooping.”
Associated Press White said the information in the articles had been obtained legally, suggesting Harry’s former royal editor of the Mail on Sunday, Katie Nicholl, was part of his social circle.
Harry replied: “If the sources were so good and hanging out with all my friends, then why are they using private investigators who are connected to all the illegal intelligence gathering?”
He said he spoke to reporters and tried to be polite but felt he had no choice, even though he felt they had “traded on my private life.”
“These are the people we were forced to work with, you had to have some kind of relationship with them… you know who they are, you know exactly what kind of stories they wrote about me,” Harry told the court.
Prince Harry and King Charles had a private tea in London, Buckingham Palace confirmed on Wednesday. This marks their first meeting in almost two years. Harry, Duke of Sussex, last saw his father in early 2024, shortly after the King was announced to be undergoing treatment for cancer.
