Prince Harry gave an interview to ITV’s Tabloids on Trial documentary, all about the group of celebrities and victims of crimes who saw their lives upended by criminal acts by the British tabloids. Phone hacking, breaking-and-entering, stalking, unlawful monitoring, records-hacking, blagging, and all of it happening over the course of decades. Harry has already been successful in his lawsuit against the Mirror, not only did the judgment go his way, but he also won substantial damages and the Mirror Group had to settle all of the other claims Harry made against them. He currently still has pending lawsuits against the Sun (News Group) and the Mail. Several clips from Harry’s ITV interview were released this week, and his answers about “the family rift” and whether his mother was “paranoid” were of particular interest:
The Duke of Sussex has said that his legal crusade against the tabloid press was central to the breakdown of his relationship with his family. Prince Harry, 39, told an ITV documentary that “it would be nice” if the Royal family had joined forces to take on the media together.
He said: “I think everything that’s played out has shown people what the truth of the matter is. For me, the mission continues, but it has… yes. It’s caused… part of a rift.”
The Duke believes that his continuing legal fight against the press, which has involved several High Court claims, some of which are active, is largely to blame. Asked whether his determination to fight the tabloids had destroyed the relationship with his family, he told the documentary, Tabloids on Trial: “Yeah, that’s certainly a central piece to it. But, you know, that’s a hard question to answer because anything I say about my family results in a torrent of abuse from the press…I’ve made it very clear that this is something that needs to be done. It would be nice if we, you know, did it as a family. I believe that, again, from a service standpoint and when you are in a public role, that these are the things that we should be doing for the greater good. But, you know, I’m doing this for my reasons.”
The Duke also suggests in the documentary that his legal battles had demonstrated that his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, was not “paranoid” as many have suggested but was “absolutely right” to fear what was going on around her.
Asked whether phone hacking had made him paranoid, he said: “I think paranoia is a very interesting word because yes, then it could be paranoia, but then when you’re vindicated it proves that you weren’t being paranoid. You know, same with my mother. There is evidence to suggest that she was being hacked in the mid-1990s, probably one of the first people to be hacked and yet still today, the press, the tabloid press, very much enjoy painting her as being paranoid. But she wasn’t paranoid, she was absolutely right of what was happening to her. And she’s not around today to find out the truth.”
It is his first interview since his claim against Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) concluded in December 2023, when he was awarded £140,600 in compensation after 15 of 33 articles were found to have been the product of phone hacking or unlawful information gathering. Prince Harry called the judge’s ruling a “monumental victory”.
He said: “To go in there and come out and have the judge rule in our favour was obviously huge. But for him to go as far as he did with regard to, you know, this wasn’t just the individual people. This went right up to the top…this was lawyers, this was high executives. And to be able to achieve that in a trial, that’s a monumental victory.”
Obviously, the discussion about “paranoia” was particularly loaded, given that Prince William stood up in public in 2021 and called his mother paranoid and afraid, a fragile woman who was manipulated away from… being Charles’s dutiful wife, or something. Harry has always honored Diana and her efforts to tell her story, and obviously, Diana was not paranoid. They really were hacking into her phone and following her and doing all kinds of dreadful things to her.
Now, I think Harry is being very selective about what he says about the family rift and how his battle with the tabloids has changed his relationship with his family. It’s not simply that “anything I say about my family results in a torrent of abuse from the press” – it’s that anything he says results in a torrent of abuse from HIS FAMILY. But he still got some good hits in – “It would be nice if we, you know, did it as a family” and “from a service standpoint and when you are in a public role, that these are the things that we should be doing for the greater good.” 100%
EXCL: Prince Harry tells me his legal fight with tabloids was a “central piece” in the breakdown of his relationship with his family.
In our ITV1 documentary ,Tabloids on Trial, Harry says in a “public role these are the things that we should be doing for the greater good”. pic.twitter.com/M065MbRShk
— Rebecca Barry (@BeccaBarry) July 24, 2024
EXCL: “When you’re vindicated, it proves you weren’t being paranoid”
Prince Harry tells me he experienced the same paranoia as his mother Princess Diana.
Our exclusive interview features in Tabloids on Trial on ITV1 at 9pm on Thursday pic.twitter.com/hqkk9Or21h
— Rebecca Barry (@BeccaBarry) July 24, 2024
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, ITV.