Shocking truths have been unveiled in Prince Harry‘s battle against U.K. tabloid publishers over the invasion of his privacy.
The youngest son of King Charles III has been involved in a legal battle for justice involving the spread of news about his private life. According to the Duke of Sussex, these details were gathered unlawfully.
The royal member fired accusations, including phone hacking, against the publisher of the Daily Mirror. However, the media publication recently shared some details about how they obtained information about the duke, which is bound to leave jaws open.
The Tabloid’s Publisher Claims The Stories About Prince Harry Came From Members Of The Royal Family
The phone-hacking trial was a heated battle in the High Court as four stars sued Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) for using “unlawful” methods to obtain information. The plaintiffs are the Duke of Sussex, Nikki Sanderson, Fiona Wightman, and Michael Turner.
In trying to defend themselves, the publisher of the Daily Mirror seemingly vindicated the former Senior Royal and affirmed his damaging allegations against his famous family.
During the trial, the outlet’s representative denied using illicit means to obtain the facts about Prince Harry used in their stories.
Per Yahoo News U.K., the tabloid’s publisher claimed that 28 of the 33 articles cited in Harry’s lawsuit did not involve phone hacking or other illegal forms of information gathering.
According to the written submissions by MGN’s legal counsel, barrister Andrew Green, the newspaper revealed their sources were members of the royal family and their staff. “Many came from information disclosed by or on behalf of royal households or members of the Royal Family,” the legal document noted.
It is no news that since stepping down as a senior member of the British Royal family alongside his wife Meghan Markle in January 2020, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have pointed fingers at “The Firm” for being the brains behind the tabloid tales that are being spun about them by the British media.
Even in his best-selling, controversial memoir, “Spare,” the 38-year-old accused royal members of attacking each other by sharing news with the press.
In his book, the father-of-two recalled stepmother Queen Camilla’s alleged wrongdoings. He alleged she tried to improve her image by intentionally leaking stories to media outlets.
“I have complex feelings about gaining a step-parent who I thought had recently sacrificed me on her personal P.R. altar,” the Operational Service Medal for Afghanistan recipient wrote.
The fifth in line to the British Throne’s allegations against the royal family in his book might be a case without a particular verdict. However, his battle with MGN seems to have shed some light on the truth.
Although the tabloid tried to dismiss the case, claiming that the accusations came past the statutory limit, they eventually admitted their crimes. According to the court filings, MGN denied hacking the petitioners’ phones but confessed to using illegal methods.
By using unlawful information-gathering techniques, the publisher’s titles reportedly obtained confidential information about Harry and two of the other plaintiffs — Nikki Sanderson and Fiona Wightman.
MGN Apologized To The Duke Of Sussex For The Illegal Gathering Of Information
Amid the royal’s battle against the publisher of the Daily Mirror, PEOPLE reported that MGN tendered their apology to Prince Harry. The offering of remorse arrived in court filings, where the group accepted their guilt for only one instance of unlawful information gathering.
The article they were apologizing for detailed Harry’s activities at a London nightclub in 2004. MGN obtained the details about the 38-year-old’s whereabouts after one of their journalists used a private investigator to gather the information illegally.
“MGN unreservedly apologizes for all such instances of UIG and assures the claimants that such conduct will never be repeated,” the publishing hub’s apology read. Nonetheless, the organization refused to accept the other allegations against them, such as voicemail hacking.
Prince Harry’s case involved 148 articles published by MGN between 1996 and 2010. The royal and the three other claimants were allegedly chosen as “test cases” from a larger group of high-profile figures.
The A-listers are all suing the tabloid’s publisher for unlawful information gathering in their articles. For the Prince’s case, his attorney David Sherborne claimed the father-of-two was harassed daily.
In a written submission, the legal practitioner stated that his client “experienced unusual telephone and media-related activity.” The lawyer believed these activities were part of the “unauthorized accessing of his voicemails and other unlawful information gathering.”
The attorney explained that Prince Harry received missed and hung-up phone calls “on an almost daily basis from numbers he did not recognize.” Sherborne argued that these occurrences, alongside “the widespread dissemination amongst MGN’s journalists of private information” relating to the Duke, threatened the royal’s safety.
