The palace’s approach, Harry said in a legal filing, included a secret settlement with a Rupert Murdoch-owned British media group, News Group Newspapers, related to phone hacking that was reached to spare Harry’s brother, William, from having to testify about personal details in court.
This case in one of three lawsuits that Harry has filed against British news media companies. “For my whole life the press have misled about me and covered up their wrongdoing,” Harry said on Wednesday, looking at the judge. He added that he was baffled by any suggestion that he was “speculating” about the tabloids’ actions when the defense “has the evidence in front of them.”
Jane Kerr, a former editor at The Mirror, also took the stand.
After Harry’s testimony concluded, his lawyer, David Sherborne, questioned Ms. Kerr, a former royals editor at the paper, about the news-gathering methods that Mirror reporters used to get scoops, including by relying on freelancers or companies that he said had engaged in illegal practices.
He asked Ms. Kerr about requests for information that she had made to a company that he said had used unlawful information gathering techniques. Ms. Kerr said she did not remember why she had used the service.
“You don’t remember or you don’t want to remember, Ms. Kerr?” Mr. Sherborne said.
He also asked Ms. Kerr if she knew how many of the third parties she was working with to obtain data — including freelancers, investigators and news agencies — got that information.
She repeatedly said she did not know their methods. “It didn’t occur to me that anything was unlawful,” Ms. Kerr said. “So the main thing was to ensure that it was accurate.”
Harry described consequences for his mental health.
The prince said in 55 pages of written testimony that the constant intrusion of the tabloids into his and his wife Meghan’s lives had “a devastating impact on our mental health and well-being.”
But for the judge to rule in his favor, Harry has to prove more than that the tabloids engaged in practices that he felt caused him harm. He must convince the judge that journalists published information about him that they would only have been able to obtain through hacking or other unlawful means.
