‘Paranoia, fear and distrust’: Prince Harry on the impact of hacking before ‘monumental victory’

Prince Harry tells ITV News Correspondent Rebecca Barry the High Court ruling that he was hacked by Mirror Group Newspapers was a “monumental victory”

Prince Harry has told ITV News the High Court ruling that he was hacked by Mirror Group Newspapers was a “monumental victory”.

In an interview for an ITV1 documentary, Tabloids On Trial, Prince Harry has spoken for the first time about the result of the trial.

He told me he feels “vindicated” by the judge’s ruling that senior figures at the newspaper group knew about unlawful activities.

“To have the judge rule in our favour was obviously huge. But for him to go as far as he did… this wasn’t just the individual people. This went right up to the top. This was lawyers, this was high executives. And to be able to achieve that in a trial that’s a monumental victory.”

In December 2023, a judge ruled that Prince Harry’s voicemails had been intercepted and his private information unlawfully obtained by the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and The People.

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Prince Harry says he feels “vindicated” by the judge’s ruling in the phone hacking case last year

Prince Harry told me it had caused him “paranoia, fear and distrust”.

A judge ruled 15 out of 33 Mirror Group Newspapers articles – including stories about his past girlfriends, a conversation with his brother, his deployments to Afghanistan – were all the result of phone hacking, so-called “blagging” or other unlawful activities.

“When you’re vindicated,” Prince Harry told me, “it proves that you weren’t being paranoid”.

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Prince Harry says the experience of his mother Princess Diana is partly what motives him to fight the tabloid press

In 2005, Mirror Group Newspapers commissioned private investigators to blag the flight information, credit card details or phone bills of Prince Harry’s then-girlfriend Chelsy Davy.

“That has absolutely no public interest whatsoever” he says. “There’s a big difference between what interests the public and what is in the public interest. What happens in my private life between myself and my then-girlfriend is exactly that, between us.”

Following the trial Prince Harry was awarded £140,600 in damages and later settled the remainder of his claim against MGN, which included a “substantial additional sum by way of damages”.

Prince Harry told me his mother Princess Diana “motivates” him in his legal battles against the tabloids.

And he thinks the paranoia he experienced was the “same” as his mother’s.

“There is evidence to suggest that she was being hacked in the mid-90s, probably one of the first people to be hacked and yet still today, the press, the tabloid press very much enjoy painting her as being paranoid.

“But she wasn’t paranoid, she was absolutely right about what was happening to her. And she’s not around today to, to find out the truth.”

It’s never been proven in court that Princess Diana was hacked. Prince Harry’s “mission” – as he calls it – differs from his brother’s approach.

In 2020, Prince William reportedly settled out-of-court with News Group Newspapers for what’s been described as “a very large sum of money”.

Harry told me his determination to fight the tabloids had been “a central piece” in the breakdown of his relationship with his family.

“Anything I say about my family results in a torrent of abuse from the press,” he says.

“I’ve made it very clear that this (legal action) is something that needs to be done. It would be nice if we did it as a family.

“I believe that from a service standpoint and when you are in a public role, that these are the things that we should be doing for the greater good.”

When I ask him what he thinks of his family’s decision not to fight public court battles as he has, he replies: “I think everything that’s played out has shown people what the truth of the matter is. For me, the mission continues, but it has caused… part of a rift.”

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The decision to fight public court battles against the tabloid press is a “central piece” to why Prince Harry has fallen out with his family, he says

Prince Harry’s also bringing legal action against against Rupert Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers, which publishes The Sun and Associated Newspapers, the publisher of the Daily Mail.

Both strongly deny unlawful information gathering.

“This is a David versus Goliath situation” says Harry. “The Davids are the claimants, and the Goliath is this vast media enterprise. I’m trying to get justice for everybody”

It wasn’t just royalty in the crosshairs of some tabloids – even those caught up tragedy were targeted.

Paul Dadge helps a victim of the London Terrorist Attacks on Edgware Road in 2005. Credit: PA
Paul Dadge appeared on the front pages as he helped the wounded after the 7/7 London bombings.

“That picture changed my life,” he says. “I just wanted to help people on that day and I can just remember hearing the shutters of the cameras going click, click, click.”

“I was now being held up as this heroic poster boy, but people had died underground. I found it very difficult to deal with.”

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Ex-fireman Paul Dadge told ITV he felt “vulnerable” when he became a “heroic poster boy” of the 7/7 London bombings

He’s since discovered he was hacked by the News of the World. In 2011, News Group Newspapers paid a settlement and expressed regret for the distress caused.

“We weren’t celebrities. This wasn’t salacious gossip. We were just normal people who got involved in a horrific incident. When something like this happens, it makes you feel very vulnerable and that’s very, very hard .”

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In response to allegations included in the programme News Group Newspapers said:

“In 2011 an apology was published by NGN to victims of voicemail interception by the News of the World. The company publicly committed to paying financial compensation and since then has paid settlements to those with proper claims.

“In some disputed cases, it has made commercial sense to come to a settlement agreement before trial to bring a resolution to the matter. As we reach the tail end of the litigation NGN is drawing a line under the disputed matters.

“The civil proceedings have been running for more than a decade and deal with events 13-28 years ago. It is common practice and indeed encouraged in litigation to seek to settle claims outside court where both parties agree without the cost of a trial.”

In response to the documentary, Mirror Group Newspapers said:

“We welcomed the judgment in December 2023 that gave the business the necessary clarity to move forward from events that took place many years ago.

Where historical wrongdoing took place, we apologise unreservedly, have taken full responsibility and paid compensation.”

Tabloids On Trial airs on ITV1 and ITVX at 9pm on Thursday, July 25

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