Meghan’s life made an absolute misery, Harry tells trial of Mail publisher claim

By Press Association Reporters

The UK's Prince Harry appeared on the verge of tears as he concluded his evidence at the UK high court in his trial against the publisher of the Daily Mail, saying: “They have made my wife’s life an absolute misery.”

Harry spent around two hours answering questions from Associated Newspapers Limited’s (ANL) lawyer on Wednesday in a series of frosty exchanges, before he was asked how the proceedings had made him feel by his barrister David Sherborne.

The duke said: “It’s fundamentally wrong to put us through this again when all we wanted was an apology and accountability.

“It’s a horrible experience.”

Sounding emotional and appearing to be on the verge of tears, he continued: “They continue to come after me, they have made my wife’s life an absolute misery, my Lord.”

In his 23-page witness statement, Harry said that when he brought legal action against two other newspaper publishers, he had “no idea” that he may have had a claim against ANL.

He continued: “As I am sure is clear, if I had known earlier, then I would have acted, particularly given ANL’s treatment of Meghan and her claim against it.”

Harry sued ANL and won in 2021 after The Mail On Sunday published parts of a “personal and private” letter to her father Thomas Markle.

Soon after he began dating Meghan, Harry attacked the media over its “abuse and harassment” of her.

Kensington Palace warned on his behalf: “This is not a game – it is her life.”

Leaving the courtroom after concluding his evidence on Wednesday, he continued to appear upset, sniffling as he exited through the door.

In a statement after the hearing, Harry said: “Today we reminded the Mail Group who is on trial and why.”

A response from an Associated Newspapers spokesperson said: “It is for the Judge to decide what he makes of a witness’s evidence, not Prince Harry or his spokesman, and naive and self-serving statements during the trial are inappropriate.”

In court, the duke said the case against ANL felt like a “recurring traumatic experience” and a “repeat of the past”, adding: “I have never believed that my life is open season to be commercialised by these people.”

He later said the “claim that I don’t have any rights to any privacy is disgusting”.

Harry, Sir Elton John and his husband David Furnish, campaigner Baroness Doreen Lawrence, politician Sir Simon Hughes, and actresses Sadie Frost and Liz Hurley are all bringing legal action against ANL over allegations of unlawful information gathering.

This includes claims that information for articles was obtained by carrying out or commissioning unlawful activities such as phone tapping and “blagging” private records.

ANL has strongly denied wrongdoing and is defending the claims.

In court on Tuesday, Antony White KC, for ANL, said that the claims against the publisher were “threadbare” and had been brought too late.

He continued that journalists at the organisation provide a “compelling account of a pattern of legitimate sourcing” of the more than 50 articles that are alleged to be the products of unlawful information gathering, including from the “leaky” social circles of the celebrities’ friends.

During his evidence on Wednesday, the duke denied having “leaky” social circles, as he insisted he was unable to complain about press coverage because of the royal institution.

In a frosty exchange between Harry and lawyers acting on behalf of ANL, the duke told the High Court: “My social circles were not leaky, I want to make that absolutely clear.”

He said that if he became suspicious of someone, “I would have to cut contact with this person”.

Harry said it would have been “impossible to complain” about certain stories because “thousands” of articles were being written about him by newspapers.

He added: “If you complain, they double down on you, in my experience.”

The duke insisted he did not complain about some of the articles at the centre of his claim “because of the institution I was in”.

In his witness statement, Harry said he did not see “why Associated should get away with something they have covered up and lied about for however many years”.

He continued: “I am determined to hold Associated accountable, for everyone’s sake.

“I am therefore committed to pursuing this claim because I believe it is in the public’s interest.

“If the defendant, the owner of various national newspapers, including the Daily Mail which, by its own definition, is the most influential and popular newspaper in the UK, can evade justice without there being a trial of my claims then what does that say about the industry as a whole and the consequences for our great country.”

In written submissions, Mr White said the publisher “strongly denies” that there was any unlawful information gathering, including voicemail interception, directed at the duke.

He continued that the articles “were sourced entirely legitimately from information variously provided by contacts of the journalists responsible, including individuals in the Duke of Sussex’s social circle, press officers and publicists, freelance journalists, photographers and prior reports”.

The barrister later told the court that payments to private investigators, used in the claims of the household names, were “examples of clutching at straws in the wind and seeking to bind them together in a way that has no proper analytical foundation”.

He added: “Associated is not a corner shop. It is audited. Auditors usually do not miss the haemorrhaging of large amounts of cash of this size.”

After the hearing, a spokesman for Harry said: “Today’s cross-examination was revealing in its weakness: assertive in tone, but collapsing immediately under scrutiny from Prince Harry.

“Associated couldn’t wait to get him off the stand, questioning him for just two hours and avoiding 10 of his 14 articles entirely.”

The trial before Mr Justice Nicklin is due to conclude at the end of March with a judgment in writing at a later date.