Prince Harry is preparing to testify in a crunch lawsuit that is expected to see him grilled by the same tabloid lawyer who fought a past case—a case Harry believes caused Meghan Markle to miscarry a pregnancy.
The Duke of Sussex will accuse veteran royal correspondents of driving him “paranoid” by using what he says were unlawful tactics to get stories about his private life for the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday, published by Associated Newspapers Ltd [ANL].
A source close to the case has already told Newsweek the Mail’s lawyers have been using “dirty tricks” to try to catch him unprepared after his evidence, originally listed for Thursday, was brought forward a day.
Harry will speak about his allegations they obtained flight records for his ex-girlfriend Chelsy Davy and were told by a freelance journalist they could try to “plant” a reporter next to Davy on her plane, which Harry said in a witness statement was “deeply disturbing.”
Why It Matters
In reality though, the emotional stakes go even higher than that for the prince because the MoS is the same tabloid Meghan previously sued for publishing a private letter she sent her estranged father, Thomas Markle.
The same lawyer who fought that case, Antony White, gave the Mail‘s opening speech at the High Court on Tuesday, rebutting Harry’s allegations, and is expected to grill the prince when cross examination begins.
In both cases, White will have been instructed by a wider team of attorneys and indeed by ANL as his client. Needless to say, Harry is coming face to face with the same lawyer who argued five of Meghan’s friends who gave anonymous interviews to People magazine in February 2019 could be named.
That discussion, about whether to name her five friends, was going through the High Court at the time Meghan experienced a miscarriage in July 2020. It should be noted that medical scientists state there is no proven link between stress and miscarriage and many failed pregnancies occur not due to environmental factors but due to chromosomal abnormalities.
However, Prince Harry told the couple’s December 2022 Netflix series Harry & Meghan: “I believe my wife suffered a miscarriage because of what The Mail did. I watched the whole thing.
“Now, do we absolutely know that the miscarriage was created, caused by that? Course we don’t. But bearing in mind the stress that that caused, the lack of sleep, and the timing of the pregnancy, how many weeks in she was, I can say from what I saw, that miscarriage was created by what they were trying to do to her.”
Meghan said: “I was pregnant. I really wasn’t sleeping. The first morning when we woke up in our home [having moved house] is when I miscarried.”
Prince Harry Accuses Mail on ‘Dirty Tricks’
Tensions have already flared after White brought his remarks to a close within hours, having initially suggested he would need a day and a half. That meant Harry’s own testimony had to be brought forward from Thursday to Wednesday, when he had not been expecting to attend court.
A source close to the Duke told Newsweek on Wednesday: “ANL, publishers of the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday and MailOnline, and their legal team, have had months to inform the court that their opening argument would last less than two hours. Instead, they have had to resort to game playing and dirty tricks—consistent with the way they have treated not just the Duke but all of the victims in this case.”
Harry is one of seven co-claimants, with the others including Sir Elton John, his husband David Furnish, actresses Elizabeth Hurley and Sadie Frost, racial justice campaigner Baroness Doreen Lawrence and politician Simon Hughes.
“They think that by pulling the schedule forward 24 hours they are giving Prince Harry less time to prepare,” the source said, “he’s been preparing for this moment for the last three years. Safe to say, he’s ready.”
Prince Harry’s Allegation Against the Mail
In the case itself, Harry has argued material printed by ANL could only have been obtained by hacking into his voicemail messages. ANL denies the allegations and is fighting the case.
Harry will arrive at court at around 11am on Wednesday, and during his evidence can expect to be grilled by Antony White, attorney for the Mail, who will argue the journalists involved had other sources.
It is a crunch moment for him and will pit him against longstanding and respected royal correspondents Rebecca English, the Daily Mail‘s royal editor, and Katie Nicholl, who was royal correspondent at The Mail on Sunday before going on to Vanity Fair.
Among his own side’s evidence, Harry may want to talk about an email sent to English by a freelance journalist detailing Davy’s flight details, including her seat number, together with a suggestion to “plant someone next to her.” There is nothing to suggest the Mail took up this suggestion.
And once White begins his cross examination, he may wish to grill Harry on the journalists’ side to the story, including Nicholl’s account that her stories came from friends of Harry’s who she met after the prince invited her to a private party in 2003, when he was 18.
In addition to his live testimony, Harry’s written statement is set to be released to the media when his evidence begins and is likely to contain some emotive language about the impact the reporting had on him emotionally. Some snippets have already emerged through the opening speech of Harry’s lawyer, David Sherborne.
Harry said the Mail’s conduct meant it was “disturbing to feel that my every move, thought or feeling was being tracked and monitored just for the Mail to make money out of it.”
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