Prince Harry, first royal in 132 years to testify in court

Prince Harry on Tuesday became the first member of the senior branch of the British royal family to testify in court in 132 years. He did so as part of a lawsuit against various British media outlets, including the Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) conglomerate. The last royal to do so was King Edward VII in 1891.

According to Prince Harry's lawsuit, MGN allegedly hacked into his personal phone to collect private information between 1996 and 2009. According to the Duke of Sussex, some 140 items contain illegally obtained information. The media group also reportedly called Harry a "cheat" and a "thicko." MGN has denied the allegations.

The press that destroyed a family

Prince Harry made harsh allegations against the media whom he also accused of deteriorating his relationship with the rest of the royal family, an accusation he has made on several previous occasions. In a written statement, Harry argued that the media projected a biased image of him and the other members of the royal family, with the aim of selling a simplistic and audience-friendly narrative.

"They then start to edge you towards playing the role or roles that suit them best and which sells as many newspapers as possible, especially if you are the 'spare' to the 'heir,'" Harry said. "You're then either the 'playboy prince', the 'failure', the 'drop out' or, in my case, the 'thicko', the 'cheat', the 'underage drinker', the 'irresponsible drug taker'..." At the center of all these accusations is MGN executive Piers Morgan, who for years headed British newspaper The Sun, owned by a European subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch's media empire.

Cell phone hacking

According to Prince Harry's account, in the years mentioned above, he repeatedly encountered the same situation. Messages received on his voicemail were not labeled as "new" even though he had never listened to them. "I remember on multiple occasions hearing a voicemail for the first time that wasn’t ‘new,’" he wrote in his statement. "I would simply put it down to perhaps a technical glitch, as mobile phones were still relatively new back then, or even just having too many drinks the night before [and having forgotten that I’d listened to it]." It was these details that led him to initially suspect that his cell phone was being hacked.

According to local reports, the testimony before the judge took place in a tense atmosphere. The defense attorney asked several questions to Prince Harry, who always answered in a low and measured tone.

In total, the Duke of Sussex has six open lawsuits against the British media. In some others, along with celebrities such as Elton John, he denounces the treatment he received from national tabloids over the years. In January 2023, Harry told ABC News that he aims to forever change the relationship between the media and celebrities.