Prince Harry says battle against tabloids worsened rift with family

Prince Harry, who has been embroiled in legal battles against British tabloids, said his "mission" against them partly caused his rift with the royal family, in an interview aired Thursday.

The younger son of King Charles III has brought a number of court cases against tabloids which he, alongside other public figures, accuses of illegally collecting information.

Beyond the legal proceedings, the Duke of Sussex, as he is also known, has expressed anger at the mistreatment of his wife Meghan by the popular press.

He has long considered them responsible for the death of his mother, Princess Diana, in a car accident in Paris in 1997.

In December last year, Harry, 39, secured a ruling in his favour against MGN, the publisher of the Daily Mirror, for phone hacking, which he said was a "monumental victory".

"To have the judge rule in our favour was obviously huge," Harry, 39, told a new ITV documentary, "Tabloids on Trial".

"But for him to go as far as he did... this wasn't just the (fault of) individual people. This went right up to the top.

"This was lawyers, this was high executives," added the prince, who made a surprise appearance in court to testify in the case.

Harry was awarded more than £140,000 ($180,000) in damages after the trial, and reached a financial settlement over remaining claims against MGN.

He has also filed a similar lawsuit against NGN, publisher of tabloid The Sun, which denies the accusations.

That trial is set to take place next year.

Harry has however dropped libel claims against the group that publishes the Mail on Sunday for its reporting on his police protection.

The former British Army captain, who quit royal duties and moved to North America in 2020, said his mother's hounding by the tabloids helped motivate him in his legal battle.

"She wasn't paranoid, she was absolutely right about what was happening to her," he said. "She's not around today to find out the truth."

'The greater good'

Since he and Meghan left the UK, Harry has had been at odds with his family, particularly his brother William and their father.

Tensions between the two brothers strained further with the release of a Netflix documentary produced by Harry and Meghan at the end of 2022.

Actor Hugh Grant also speaks about his treatment by the media in a new television documentary © Adrian DENNIS / AFP

He was also critical of William in his memoir "Spare", published last year.

Harry told the programme he believed his determination to take on the tabloids aggravated the rift.

He said he regretted that the rest of the British royal family was not by his side. "It would be nice if we, you know, did it as a family," he added.

"I believe that from a service standpoint and when you are in a public role, that these are the things that we should be doing for the greater good.

"For me, the mission continues".

Other celebrities who have launched legal action against tabloids, including British actor Hugh Grant, also opens up in the documentary.

The "Four Weddings and a Funeral" actor described how microphones were placed in windows outside his house, with mics and trackers dropped into his car.

Grant recently reached a financial settlement with NGN to end legal proceedings after being advised of the hefty legal bill he could have to pay if he went to trial.

NGN has denied accusations of wrongdoing at The Sun.

Despite the deal, Grant said he remained "bitter and determined to exact justice on the executives who commissioned this stuff".

Britain's former prime minister Gordon Brown also features in the documentary, accusing NGN of illegally accessing his personal information such as his bank account and bills.

"All these things happened to me during the period I was chancellor (finance minister) and prime minister," he said, calling for new investigations into the matter.

© 2024 AFP