Prince Harry’s trial against News Group Newspapers starts today. As we’ve seen in recent weeks, several “special” campaigns were prepared in advance of the trial, including the Vanity Fair cover story, which dropped like a bomb last Friday. There’s a high-level, multi-pronged campaign to smear Harry and his wife, to “force” them back to the UK, to disparage Harry as a henpecked man-child who doesn’t know his mind. In addition to all of this, Buckingham Palace has been briefing about Harry’s travel, security and hotel arrangements ahead of his trip to London for the trial. The British media indicated their belief that Harry would be in London this week for the first days of the trial, and perhaps even pop up in London today, where they prepared a million “King Charles and Prince William snub Harry” stories. Harry cut them off at the pass – the Sussex team went to People Mag with some information:
Prince Harry will not travel to London for the first day of his trial against Rupert Murdoch’s tabloid The Sun, refuting claims that he turned down an offer to stay at Buckingham Palace this week.
PEOPLE understands that Harry will not attend the first day of the NGN trial on Tuesday, Jan. 21, but is scheduled to testify in court in February, debunking false reports about supposed security offers.
The Duke of Sussex’s trial against News Group Newspapers (NGN), the publisher of The Sun, centers on allegations of unlawful information gathering by journalists and private investigators. Harry is set to testify later in the proceedings, which are taking place alongside former Labour MP Tom Watson. Harry has accused NGN of phone hacking and other privacy violations between 1996 and 2011, a period during which The Sun and the now-defunct News of the World allegedly targeted him. NGN has denied any wrongdoing.
The news refutes recent reports that Harry declined an invitation to stay at Buckingham Palace this week. A source reportedly told The Mirror that Harry was offered accommodation at the royal residence but chose to turn it down. It was also reported that he was set to be granted protection from the Metropolitan Police while attending the hearings.
People didn’t get confirmation either way about Harry’s security, but Harry has known about his scheduled appearance in London to testify for a while now, so he would have been able to give the royal protection unit enough notice. That’s the current deal on Harry’s UK security – it’s decided on a case-by-case basis, and he has to give them 30-days notice, basically. It would be insane if the police/Ravec decided Harry didn’t need security for this highly publicized court appearance in London. As for Harry’s team telling People that he’s not going to London this week… that’s interesting, because I’m sure several briefings and hit pieces will be put on hold until he does arrive. But the wording on whether Harry turned down a room at the palace is a little bit weird – my guess is that Harry will be staying at a hotel, but that Charles didn’t offer Harry jacksh-t anyway.
Update: there’s a big commotion at the London court today, which I will cover separately!
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
