LONDON: Prince Harry will become the first senior British royal to provide evidence next week in court in 130 years when he testifies in his lawsuit against a newspaper group he accuses of unlawful behaviour.
Harry, the younger son of King Charles, would appear in the witness box at London’s High Court as part of the case he and over 100 other high-profile figures and celebrities have brought against Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), publisher of the Daily Mirror, Sunday People and Sunday Mirror.
According to the BBC, this would be the first time in the last 130 years as a senior royal figure will give evidence since Edward VII testified as a witness in part of a divorce case in 1870 and a few years later in a slander trial over a card game, both before he became king.
Prince Harry, who is fifth-in-line to the throne, could hardly be sidelined from the headlines in the last six months over his legal differences with the British press and the release of his memoir and Netflix documentary series in which he accused other senior royals of colluding with tabloid newspapers.
David Yelland, a senior communications adviser and a former editor of Rupert Murdoch’s Sun tabloid newspaper – a publication Harry is also suing – stated that the royal family had long sought to avoid court cases because they were not in control of the situation.
“These cases are often a case of mutually assured destruction. I don’t think anyone will get out looking great,” David said.
More than 100 people are suing MGN, with Harry and three others selected as test cases.
Trial in court
The trial, which began last month, has been told MGN journalists or private investigators commissioned by them carried out phone-hacking on an “industrial scale”, and committed other unlawful acts to obtain information about the prince and the other claimants.
A journalist and biographer of Harry told the court that one of those who knew about hacking was former editor Piers Morgan, now one of Britain’s most high-profile broadcasters and an outspoken critic of the prince and his wife Meghan.
Morgan, who has rejected any link with the unlawful behavior and has accused Harry of invading his own family’s privacy, left his job as a presenter on a TV breakfast show after making outspoken remarks about him.
“It’s difficult to escape the notion that he’s using the courts because he knows that when he is in the witness box, he will be believed,” Yelland said. “It is the ultimate interview to be cross-examined by a hostile barrister in the witness box.”
At the start of the trial, MGN, now owned by Reach (RCH.L), apologized in court documents and admitted that on one occasion, the Sunday People had unlawfully sought information about Harry and that he was entitled to compensation.
But it has rejected his other allegations, saying he had no evidence for his claims. Instead, Buckingham Palace will likely feature prominently in Harry’s cross-examination, with MGN arguing that some information had come from royal aides.
MGN’s documents say one story about Harry came when his father’s former deputy private secretary and Morgan had “regular meals and drinking sessions together”.
Harry said his family and their aides had been complicit in leaking negative stories to protect or enhance their reputations. The palace has not commented.
This week’s appearance will be the second time this year that Harry has attended the High Court in London, after joining singer Elton John and others for hearings in March over their lawsuit against the publisher of the Daily and Sunday Mail tabloids.
