Prince Harry testifies against Daily Mail publisher in privacy lawsuit

MANCHESTER, England (CN) — Prince Harry took the witness stand Wednesday and accused the publisher of the Daily Mail of commercializing his private life as he gives evidence in a privacy lawsuit.

The nine-week civil trial, which began Monday before Justice Matthew Nicklin, will test claims that journalists relied on tactics such as phone tapping and impersonation to obtain details like medical records, travel plans and phone numbers — charges the publisher rejects as baseless.

Harry is bringing the case alongside six other high-profile figures, including pop icon Elton John and actress Elizabeth Hurley, against Associated Newspapers Limited, the owner of the Mail papers.

Harry takes the stand

The duke, the younger son of King Charles III, arrived at the High Court on a rainy London morning before giving testimony originally scheduled for Thursday, as it was brought forward after opening arguments concluded early.

Harry’s part of the case centers on 14 stories about him published between 2001 and 2013 that he says relied on unlawfully gathered information.

In his much-anticipated court appearance, much of his testimony focused on how the attention from the tabloids shaped his adult life long before he met Meghan, now the Duchess of Sussex.

“I’ve never believed that my life is open season to be commercialized by these people,” he said.

He told the court that for years reporters had tracked his movements and contacts.

“Having my life, like others, commercialized in this way since I was a teenager, delving into every single aspect of my private life, listening into calls, blagging flights, so that they could find out where I’m going,” Harry said.

“To sit here and go through this all over again and have them give their own defense and claim that I don’t have any right to any privacy is disgusting.”

Harry said one reporter for Mail on Sunday, a weekly tabloid, would “turn up at places where no one could possibly know where I was.”

Delivering his final remarks, and his voice breaking, he said the worst part of sitting in the witness box is that the Daily Mail’s publisher has “made my wife’s life an absolute misery.”

Why Harry didn’t complain earlier

Defense lawyer Antony White, a senior barrister known in Britain as a King’s Counsel, questioned Harry on why he did not challenge some of the articles when they were published.

Harry said he believed at the time that some of the information might have come from legitimate sources and that his role within the Royal Family made formal complaints difficult.

In a written statement released to the public during his evidence, Harry said the reporting left him suspicious of the people around him.

“I always suspected those close to me, including my friends and bodyguards, of being the sources of that private information,” he wrote.

Phone tapping and impersonation tactics 

Harry and the other claimants, Elton John and his husband David Furnish, actresses Elizabeth Hurley and Sadie Frost, former lawmaker Simon Hughes and antiracism campaigner Doreen Lawrence, say Associated Newspapers used illegal methods to gather private data for stories.

Their lawyers say reporters and editors relied on phone tapping, impersonation and private investigators to obtain details such as phone numbers, medical information and travel plans.

Court filings say the tactics created fear and “paranoia” among the targets.

Two journalists, Katie Nicholl and Rebecca English, wrote most of the stories Harry is challenging. Both deny wrongdoing.

Associated Newspapers rejects the claims and says its reporters used lawful methods.

The Daily Mail publisher has called the case “lurid” and “preposterous” and says it was filed too late to proceed.

Harry’s final tabloid battle 

This is Harry’s third major court battle with British tabloids.

In 2023, he became the first senior British royal in more than a century to give evidence in court when he sued Mirror Group Newspapers.

During that case, the publisher issued a formal apology for unlawful information gathering that targeted Harry.

A judge later ruled that reporters at those papers hacked his phone and awarded him about $182,000 in damages.

In January 2025, he also reached a settlement with the U.K. arm of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., the publisher of the Sun newspaper, over similar claims. News Corp. agreed to pay substantial damages and issued an apology for intrusions into the lives of Harry and his late mother, Princess Diana.

As a civil trial, this third battle with the Daily Mail publisher has no jury and will be decided by the judge.

Elton John is expected to give evidence in February remotely.

Courthouse News Service reporter James Francis Whitehead is based in England.

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