Live updates: Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex “physically sick” over eight payments to private investigators over Princess Diana
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Harry is suing Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) for damages, claiming journalists at its titles, which also include the Sunday Mirror and Sunday People, were linked to methods including phone hacking, so-called “blagging” or gaining information by deception, and use of private investigators for unlawful activities.
The duke arrived on Tuesday at the Rolls Building, which was surrounded by journalists and a heavy police presence.
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Hide AdHe entered the witness box of Court 15 shortly after 10.30, swearing on a bible ahead of his cross-examination by MGN’s barrister.
In his witness statement for the case, Harry said he was “shocked and appalled” by the number of payments made by MGN titles to private investigators.
The duke added: “I now realise that my acute paranoia of being constantly under surveillance was not misplaced after all.
“I was upset to discover the amount of suspicious call data and the 13 private investigator payments for Chelsy (Davy, his ex-girlfriend).
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Hide Ad“Had she not been in a relationship with me, she would never have had to endure such a horrific experience at the hands of MGN’s journalists.
“There are even eight private investigator payments made in relation to my mother, which I have only learnt of since bringing my claim.
“This makes me feel physically sick.”
Scroll down for the latest from the courts.
Duke of Sussex at High Court to give evidence in hacking trial
The Duke of Sussex has said he now sees “how much of my life was wasted on this paranoia” which he attributes to the actions of MGN.
Harry said in his witness statement that articles which claimed to have comments from people close to him “contributed to the general feeling of paranoia that I was so used to living with, a feeling of not being able to trust anybody”.
He continued: “It’s bad enough at any age, but looking back, 18 years old is so young to feel constantly suspicious of everyone around you.”
The duke added that at different points he “doubted the loyalty” of people around him including his former nanny Tiggy Legge-Bourke and former royal equerry Mark Dyer.
He continued: “It’s only now, realising what the defendant’s journalists were doing and how they were getting their information, that I can see how much of my life was wasted on this paranoia.
“I’ve always heard people refer to my mother as paranoid, but she wasn’t.
“She was fearful of what was actually happening to her and now I know that I was the same.”
The Duke of Sussex promised his then-girlfriend Chelsy Davy in 2006 that he was not given a lap dance at the Spearmint Rhino club, he said in his witness statement.
Referring to a story in The People in April 2006 which said Miss Davy had gone “berserk” and slammed the phone down on Harry over the night out, the duke said: “I don’t think Chelsy did go mad about me going there.
“We did speak about it over the phone, but I promised her that I hadn’t had a lap dance and stayed with the three other cadets that had girlfriends.”
The duke said he believed journalists had access to one of their phone records and “put two and two together to make a story”.
As the judge returned to court after a short break, the duke’s barrister David Sherborne said he’d been asked on behalf of a number of people in court and watching proceedings remotely if Harry could “raise his voice”.
Harry then laughed as Andrew Green KC, for MGN, joked: “I hope not raise it in anger.”
In his witness statement, the Duke of Sussex described a 2007 story in The People about his then-girlfriend Chelsy Davy’s fears for his safety over his proposed military deployment to Iraq as “so violating”.
He said he believed journalists had listened to his and Miss Davy’s private messages, saying: “This article once more shows it’s not my career and professional life that the defendant’s journalists were interested in, but very private, raw emotions between me and my partner.
“It’s so violating.”
Andrew Green, amid questioning the Duke of Sussex about a September 1996 Daily Mirror article on Harry’s feelings around his parents divorce, put it to the duke that his mother had already spoken publicly about the split.
“I don’t believe she talked about it, I believe she answered questions,” Harry said.
Mr Green said there had been reporting by the Press Association some two months earlier about the duke’s feelings towards the divorce.
The duke said previous reporting could be a “red rag to a bull for a journalist that was looking… to take the story further”.