Prince Harry and Elton John tell a UK court they felt violated by alleged unlawful information gathering by Daily Mail publisher Associated Newspapers.
LONDON: Alleged unlawful information gathering by two UK newspapers made Prince Harry “paranoid beyond belief” and left Elton John feeling “violated”.
Prince Harry, pop icon John, his husband David Furnish and four other high-profile figures are suing Associated Newspapers Ltd (ANL), publisher of the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday, for privacy invasions.
Harry returned to Britain to attend Monday’s opening proceedings in the High Court in his final unresolved case against UK newspaper publishers.
The claimants allege the tabloids illegally intercepted voicemail messages, listened into phone calls and deceptively obtained private information from at least 1993 to 2018.
They accuse ANL of paying private investigators implicated in other phone hacking lawsuits to generate stories.
ANL has consistently denied the claims, calling them “lurid” and “preposterous”.
In new court submissions, Harry’s lawyers detailed the impact of 14 “unlawful articles” about him based on covertly acquired private information.
Harry stated they created a “massive strain” on his personal relationships and drove “me paranoid beyond belief, isolating me”.
Witness statements by John and Furnish showed they feel their home and the safety of their children “has been violated”.
The pair felt “outrage” at the invasion into medical details surrounding their son’s birth and the stealing of his birth certificate.
It is the third and final case brought against a British newspaper publisher by Harry, who has called it his “mission”.
King Charles III’s younger son has long blamed the media for the death of his mother Princess Diana.
The 41-year-old is set to give evidence in person on Thursday.
He made history in 2023 by becoming the first senior British royal to take the stand in over a century in a successful hacking claim against Mirror Group Newspapers.
Last year, he also settled his court action against Murdoch’s UK tabloid publisher for “substantial damages”.
Actors Liz Hurley and Sadie Frost, campaigner Doreen Lawrence and ex-politician Simon Hughes are the other claimants.
All seven were in court or following proceedings remotely on Monday and are set to testify.
The claimants’ lawyer David Sherborne said he will show “there was clear and systematic use of unlawful gathering of information” at ANL.
He added the publisher “knew they had skeletons in their closet”.
The claimants allege ANL hired more than a dozen private investigators to conduct unlawful vehicle checks and access flight and bank details.
They claim investigators would impersonate individuals, a practice known as blagging, and that ANL covered it up.
ANL lawyer Antony White countered that editors and journalists are “lining up to reject the claimants’ allegations”.
Harry’s visit is a rare UK return after stepping back from royal duties in 2020 and relocating to California.
During his last visit in September, Harry met with the king amid a family rift, but there are no reported plans for a meeting during this visit.
