Prince Harry Claims He ‘Wasn’t Allowed to Complain’ About the Press as a Working Royal as He Takes Stand in Daily Mail Privacy Case

Prince Harry took the stand at London’s High Court on Wednesday in his privacy case against the publisher of U.K. tabloid Daily Mail, claiming that he “wasn’t allowed to complain” about the press when he was a working royal.

The Duke of Sussex, who stepped away from royal duties in 2020 alongside wife Meghan Markle, is currently being questioned by Antony White, the defense lawyer for Daily Mail publisher Associated Newspapers Limited. He was originally expected to give evidence in court on Thursday, but his testimony was moved up after the defense team delivered their opening statement quicker than expected. Harry is one of several big names — including Elton John and his husband David Furnish, Elizabeth Hurley and Sadie Frost — taking on the publisher, alleging that the company engaged in illegal activities like phone-hacking and hiring private investigators to place listening devices inside cars. Associated Newspapers has denied the allegations, calling them “preposterous” and saying they were brought to court too late.

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Harry’s claims specifically reference 14 articles published by Associated Newspapers titles between 2001 and 2013. As reported by BBC News, when questioned by White why he didn’t complain about his treatment in the press — specifically the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday — earlier, Harry responded that he “wasn’t allowed to complain” when he was a working member of the royal family, which he calls “the institution.”

In his witness statement, which Harry did not deliver in person but was published as his questioning began, the prince wrote that his “uneasy relationship” with the press began after the 1997 death of his mother, Princess Diana, when he was 12 years old.

“As a member of the Institution the policy was to ‘never complain, never explain.’ There was no alternative; I was conditioned to accept it,” Harry wrote, according to BBC News. “For the most part, I accepted the interest in my performing my public functions. However, in late 2016, when my relationship with Meghan, my now wife, became public, I started to become increasingly troubled by the approach of not taking action against the press in the wake of vicious persistent attacks on, harassment of and intrusive, sometimes racist articles concerning Meghan.”

He added that many articles made him “paranoid beyond belief” and alleged that the publications sought to “drive me to drugs and drinking to sell more of their papers.”

Harry was questioned about specific Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday journalists while on the stand, alleging in his witness statement that some instances “felt like full-blown stalking” and “constant surveillance.” He claimed that Mail on Sunday foreign correspondent Barbara Jones would “turn up in the most bizarre places” and said it was “very suspicious” that she would know where he was, particularly when he was in Africa.

According to BBC News, the judge has interrupted Harry twice to remind him not to argue the case himself when responding to questioning.

This marks Harry’s third time suing a major newspaper group, having previously taken legal action against The Sun owner News Group Newspapers, which settled before trial, as well as The Mirror Group, a case in which he was awareded £140,600 in damages. Harry’s testimony during his 2023 trial against The Mirror Group made history, as he became the first royal in 130 years to testify in court.

The seven claimants are being represented by lawyer David Sherborne, who alleged in his opening statement that “there was clear, systematic and sustained use of unlawful information gathering at both the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday.” White countered that the group is “clutching at straws” and that information in some of the stories had been published previously, with some of it coming from friends of the claimants who became sources for journalists.

More to come…