Journal De Bruxelles - Prince Harry accuses tabloids of making wife's life 'absolute misery'

Holding back tears, the prince said pursuing the years-long joint legal action against Associated Newspapers Ltd (ANL), the publisher of the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday, had been "a horrible experience".

He and six others, including pop icon Elton John, accuse the two tabloids of privacy invasions and unlawful information gathering, in the prince's last active legal case in his long-running crusade against some UK media.

"Having to sit here and go through this all over again and have them in their own defence claim that I don't have any right to any privacy is disgusting," Harry said as he concluded several hours in the witness box.

"It's a horrible experience, and the worst of it is that by sitting up here and taking a stand against them, like they have done through this litigation they continue to come after me. They've made my wife's life an absolute misery."

Harry, 41, in court on the third day of the highly anticipated nine-week trial, stepped back from royal duties in 2020 and relocated eventually to California with Meghan amid a bitter family rift.

But the couple, who have two children, have long complained about media intrusion and Meghan's treatment by Britain's newspapers after years of negative stories about her.

- 'Mission' -

King Charles III's younger son has also blamed the media for the death of his mother Princess Diana, killed in a Paris car crash in 1997 while trying to shake off paparazzi.

The ANL joint lawsuit is the third and final case brought against a British newspaper publisher by Harry, who has called it his "mission" to take on the tabloids "for the greater good".

He made history in 2023 by becoming the first senior British royal to enter the witness box in more than a century, when he testified in his successful hacking claim against Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN).

Last year, on the eve of another scheduled trial, Rupert Murdoch's UK tabloid publisher NGN agreed to pay him "substantial damages" for privacy breaches, including phone hacking.

Six other high-profile figures -- including actors Liz Hurley and Sadie Frost -- have joined Harry in suing ANL, accusing the publisher of illegally intercepting voicemail messages, listening in on phone calls and deceptively obtaining private information.

They allege it paid private investigators implicated in other phone-hacking lawsuits for some of the unlawful information used to generate dozens of stories.

The accusations cover a period from at least 1993 to 2018 in some instances.

ANL has consistently denied the claims, calling them "lurid" and "preposterous".

- 'Greed' -

Dressed in a dark suit and striped tie, Harry took the stand late morning Wednesday, swearing an oath on the bible before facing questions from ANL's legal team.

He insisted in a witness statement unveiled that the trial was not "not just about me".

"There is obviously a personal element to bringing this claim, motivated by truth, justice and accountability, but it is not just about me," he said in the statement.

"There is also a social element concerning all the thousands of people whose lives were invaded because of greed," the prince argued.

He described press coverage of his ex-girlfriend Chelsy Davy as like "full blown stalking", while noting suspicion that people close to him were leaking stories to the press created an atmosphere of "distrust".

"This sort of intrusion was terrifying for Chelsy," he added.

While on the stand, Harry described the tabloid's coverage as "a recurring traumatic experience".

The seven claimants' legal team opened the trial Monday by vowing to show "there was clear and systematic use of unlawful gathering of information" at ANL.

But ANL's lead lawyer has countered that evidence will prove it sourced its stories legitimately and that claims around the use of private investigators were "clutching at straws in the wind".

W.Lejeune--JdB