Live updates: Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex “physically sick” over eight payments to private investigators over Princess Diana

The Duke of Sussex has arrived at the High Court to give evidence in his claim against Mirror Group Newspapers.

Harry arrived outside the Rolls Building in central London at 9.36am in a black Range Rover, wearing a black suit.

He walked into the building without answering reporters’ questions before passing security checks inside.

The Duke of Sussex has entered court 15 of the Rolls Building ahead of giving evidence in his claim against Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) over alleged unlawful information gathering at its titles.

Harry, 38, wearing a dark blue suit, arrived in the courtroom and sat next to his lawyers.

The Duke of Sussex was sworn in as a witness.

Holding a Bible in his right hand while standing up, Harry repeated after a court clerk the oath: “I swear by almighty God that the evidence I shall give shall be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.”

David Sherborne, the duke’s barrister, asked Harry to confirm that his preferred way to be addressed, after first being referred to as “your Royal Highness”, is Prince Harry, to which Harry replied “yes”.

The barrister then asked Harry to confirm the contents of his witness statement are true and that it contains his signature.

Andrew Green KC, representing MGN, then began his cross-examination of the duke by saying: “I’m sure your legal team has explained to you how this process works.

“One of the things I am going to be doing is taking you through various newspaper articles, some of which are the subject of your claim. I entirely appreciate that you have lived a life time of tabloid press intrusion, and that having to be asked questions on such matters can only be unpleasant.”

The barrister asked the duke to let him know if he wanted to take a break “at any point or for any reason” and also to say if he found any question “objectionable”.

Mr Green then apologised to the duke in person on behalf of MGN, repeating the publisher’s “unreserved apology” to him at the outset of the trial for one instance of unlawful activity.

He said: “MGN unreservedly apologises to you for that, it should never have happened and it will never happen again.”

Mr Green told Harry that, if the judge finds that MGN was responsible for any further acts of unlawful information gathering, “you will be entitled to, and will receive, a more extensive apology”.

In his witness statement, the Duke of Sussex said it was “no secret that I have had, and continue to have, a very difficult relationship with the tabloid press in the UK”.

He continued: “In my experience as a member of the royal family, each of us gets cast into a specific role by the tabloid press. You start off as a blank canvas while they work out what kind of person you are and what kind of problems and temptations you might have. They then start to edge you towards playing the role or roles that suit them best and which sells as many newspapers as possible, especially if you are the ‘spare’ to the ‘heir’.

“You’re then either the ‘playboy prince’, the ‘failure’, the ‘dropout’ or, in my case, the ‘thicko’, the ‘cheat’, the ‘underage drinker’, the ‘irresponsible drug taker’, the list goes on.

“As a teenager and in my early 20s, I ended up feeling as though I was playing up to a lot of the headlines and stereotypes that they wanted to pin on me mainly because I thought that, if they are printing this rubbish about me and people were believing it, I may as well ‘do the crime’, so to speak.

“It was a downward spiral, whereby the tabloids would constantly try and coax me, a ‘damaged’ young man, into doing something stupid that would make a good story and sell lots of newspapers.

“Looking back on it now, such behaviour on their part is utterly vile.”

Under cross examination from Andrew Green KC, for MGN, the Duke of Sussex said: “I’ve experienced hostility from the press since I was born.”

Harry was questioned about his attitude towards the media, and asked if had a “long-standing” hostility towards it.

“Yes, that’s correct,” the duke said.

Mr Green asked if this hostility had pre-dated the discovery that unlawful methods had been used by some of the press.

The duke replied: “Yes… because the unlawful methods were hidden from me as well as everybody else.”

He added that it “certainly shocked me”.

In his witness statement, the Duke of Sussex described the impact the press had on his life.

“Every time I was getting off a plane or jumping in a car, I was looking in the rear-view mirror so to speak. I came to expect to be followed and papped by someone hiding in a bush somewhere. Everything felt as though I was under 24-hour surveillance,” Harry said.

The duke also described how, when he was on a trip to Australia in his gap year in 2003, his grandmother the late Queen secretly sent one of her aides to stay nearby without him knowing in case he needed support because of press coverage.

“I only learnt recently that the Queen had asked one of her assistant private secretaries to fly out to Noosa and take a house down the road from where I was staying, without me knowing,” Harry said.

“She was concerned about the extent of the coverage of my trip and wanted someone I knew to be nearby, in case I needed support.”

In his written evidence, the Duke of Sussex said the alleged unlawful actions of MGN journalists “affected every area of my life”.

He said: “My voicemails would include incredibly private and sensitive information about my relationships, my operational security and that of my family, my work both in the army and as a senior member of the royal family, and also any plans that I had made for my time off including holidays and downtime with friends. They would also include incredibly private and sensitive information about those with whom I associated.”

Harry added: “I remember on multiple occasions hearing a voicemail for the first time that wasn’t ‘new’, but I don’t remember thinking that it was particularly unusual – I would simply put it down to perhaps a technical glitch, as mobile phones were still relatively new back then, or even just having too many drinks the night before, and having forgotten that I’d listened to it.”

The duke said that he now believes that both his and his associates voicemail messages were hacked by MGN, and that it also used “other unlawful means” to obtain private information.

He continued: The fact that the defendant’s journalists and those instructed on their behalf were listening in to private and sensitive voicemails at the level of detail discussed in this statement rather suggests that they could have heard anything and everything.

“This not only creates a huge amount of distress but presented very real security concerns for not only me but also everyone around me. I would say their actions affected every area of my life.”

In his written evidence, the Duke of Sussex said the alleged unlawful actions of MGN journalists “affected every area of my life”.

He said: “My voicemails would include incredibly private and sensitive information about my relationships, my operational security and that of my family, my work both in the army and as a senior member of the royal family, and also any plans that I had made for my time off including holidays and downtime with friends. They would also include incredibly private and sensitive information about those with whom I associated.”

Harry added: “I remember on multiple occasions hearing a voicemail for the first time that wasn’t ‘new’, but I don’t remember thinking that it was particularly unusual – I would simply put it down to perhaps a technical glitch, as mobile phones were still relatively new back then, or even just having too many drinks the night before, and having forgotten that I’d listened to it.”

The duke said that he now believes that both his and his associates voicemail messages were hacked by MGN, and that it also used “other unlawful means” to obtain private information.

He continued: The fact that the defendant’s journalists and those instructed on their behalf were listening in to private and sensitive voicemails at the level of detail discussed in this statement rather suggests that they could have heard anything and everything.

“This not only creates a huge amount of distress but presented very real security concerns for not only me but also everyone around me. I would say their actions affected every area of my life.”