Prince Harry finally had his day in court. After missing the first day of his Mirror Group Newspapers phone hacking trial, the Duke of Sussex took the stand for his first day of testimony. He also submitted a witness statement to the court, dropping several bombshells about everything from allegations that King Charles wasn't actually his father to the press intrusion he believes he has experienced that negatively impacted his life for decades. Here are 6 major revelations from the first day of his testimony.
During his verbal testimony, Harry admitted that statements made in Spare contradicted those he made in the High Court during his case against Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN). When he was 18, he reportedly didn't want to meet with Diana's former butler, Paul Burrell, because he was a "two-faced-[expletive]." However, in Spare, he wasn't opposed to it.
"There is no suggestion in Spare that you were firmly against a meeting," said Mr Green. Harry responded: "No, because I wrote it when I was 38 years old and in this story I was 18. I assume I would have wanted a meeting…I'd love to give him a piece of my mind," Harry said. "I can't remember whether I wanted a meeting or not."
When Harry was on his gap year in Australia in 2003, he experienced an intrusion by the media. "Everybody has enormous sympathy with the amount of press intrusion you have suffered in your life but it does not follow that it was obtained unlawfully," Green told him.
"My grandma had sent senior staff down because of the intrusion into my life," Harry responded. "I only learnt recently that the Queen had asked one of her Assistant Private Secretaries to fly out to Noosa and take a house down the road from where I was staying, without me knowing," he also wrote in his statement.
Harry says all of the Harry stories published during his teenage years indicating that James Hewitt was his real father were damaging. He was 18 when he first heard "a rumor that my biological father was James Hewitt, a man my mother had a relationship with after I was born," he said. "At the time of this article and others similar to it, I wasn't actually aware that my mother hadn't met Major Hewitt until after I was born. This timeline is something I only learned of in around 2014."
He added: "At the time, when I was 18 years old and had lost my mother just six years earlier, stories such as this felt very damaging and very real to me. They were hurtful, mean and cruel. I was always left questioning the motives behind the stories," he continued. "Were the newspapers keen to put doubt into the minds of the public so I might be ousted from the Royal Family?"
Harry maintains that "every single article" published by the Mirror Group – 140 in all – caused him "distress." This includes stories about his gap year, his father's paternity, his diagnosis with the "kissing disease," and more. "All of these articles played an important role – a destructive role – in my growing up," Harry said.
He also revealed they were displayed "in every single palace, unfortunately," while growing up, and the "incredibly invasive" stories were also discussed at school.
"I always felt as if the tabloids wanted me to be single, as I was much more interesting to them and sold more newspapers," Harry wrote about how he believes the media wanted to destroy his romantic relationships. "Whilst they would, of course, report on my successes in life, it seemed to me that they took far greater pleasure in knocking me down, time and time again," he added.
They also put "strain" on his relationships. "This twisted objective is still pursued to this day even though I'm now married," he wrote.
Harry also had a lot to say about Piers Morgan, editor of The Mirror from 1995 to 2004 and a former friend of his wife. "The thought of Piers Morgan and his band of journalists earwigging into my mother's private and sensitive messages… makes me feel physically sick," Harry wrote in his evidence. He added, "Myself and my wife have been subjected to a barrage of horrific personal attacks and intimidation from Piers Morgan."
Harry had some not-so-nice things to say about the media in his witness statement. "In my view, in order to save journalism as a profession, journalists need to expose those people in the media that have stolen or highjacked the privileges and powers of the press, and have used illegal or unlawful means for their own gain and agendas," Harry wrote. "In the same vein, I am bringing this claim, not because I hate the tabloid press or even necessarily a section of it, but in order to properly hold the people who have hijacked those privileges, which come with being a member of the press, to account for their actions."
He added that he's had a"front row seat" to witness the deterioration of press standards. "Because they have showed no willingness to change, I feel that I need to make sure that this unlawful behavior is exposed, because obviously I don't want anybody else going through the same thing that I've been going through on a personal level."
