Prince Harry has stepped into the witness box at the High Court to give evidence in his legal action against the publisher of the Daily Mail. The Duke of Sussex, along with several other high-profile individuals, are bringing a lawsuit against Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) over allegations of unlawful information gathering.
Harry had been scheduled to testify on Thursday, but the court heard that ANL’s lawyers concluded their opening submissions earlier than expected, allowing the duke to take the stand on Wednesday morning. A source close to Harry’s team accused ANL of “game playing and dirty tricks” by pulling the schedule forward, claiming they were trying to give the duke less time to prepare.
The court has already heard details of Harry’s “distress” and “paranoia” following several articles published in the Daily Mail, some of which contained intimate details about his relationship with his ex-girlfriend Chelsy Davy and their “sleeping arrangements.” ANL has denied the accusations, with the trial set to continue over the next nine weeks.
Sir Elton John and his husband David Furnish, who are also among the claimants, have alleged that 10 articles about them between 2002 and 2015 were based on unlawful information gathering. In written submissions, the couple said they feel their home and the safety of their children have been “violated” by ANL’s actions.
The court was also told that the celebrities’ “leaky” social circles were a source of information for the Daily Mail, with ANL’s lawyer claiming that the Duke of Sussex’s social circle was “a good source of leaks or disclosure of information to the media about what he got up to in his private life.”
Representing Harry, barrister David Sherborne said the duke felt he had faced a “sustained campaign of attack” for standing up to the Daily Mail’s publisher. The articles, written between 2001 and 2013, “focus primarily and in a highly intrusive and damaging way, on the relationships which he formed, or rather tried to form, during those years prior to meeting his now wife Meghan.”
As the trial continues, all eyes will be on Prince Harry as he takes the stand to give his evidence against the Daily Mail’s publisher.
