Prince Harry steps up couple’s ‘war’ on the press
Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, is to sue the owners of the Mirror and the Sun over phone hacking, as he escalates his battle against Britain’s tabloid newspapers.
The Duke has filed papers at the High Court over the illegal interception of voicemail messages dating back to the early 2000s.
It comes just days after his wife, Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, announced she was suing the Mail on Sunday over the publication of extracts of a letter written by her to her father.
Prince William and Prince Harry have been mentioned in previous phone hacking court cases, along with the Duchess of Cambridge and
members of palace staff. It is believed the current legal claim relates only to the Duke of Sussex.
Previous allegations involving the Princes cited in phone hacking court cases brought by other complainants related to when they were in their teens and 20s.
The Duke of Sussex has now begun legal proceedings at the High Court, although the details of his claim have not yet been made public or delivered in full to the newspapers concerned.
It is the next stage in what has been described as the Duke’s “war” on the tabloids, and follows an excoriating statement issued this week condemning what he called “relentless propaganda” and “bullying” behaviour which “destroys people and destroys lives”.
The combination of the legal claims could put the Duke and Duchess in the witness box: the first senior members of the royal family to do so in more than a century.
Both are reported to be represented by David Sherborne, a barrister specialising in privacy, confidentiality and defamation cases who worked on the Leveson Inquiry and led phone hacking claims for celebrities including Hugh Grant.
His former clients include Diana, Princess of Wales.