Prince Harry gave an interview to ITV’s Tabloids on Trial documentary, all about the group of celebrities and victims of crimes who saw their lives upended by criminal acts by the British tabloids. Phone hacking, breaking-and-entering, stalking, unlawful monitoring, records-hacking, blagging, and all of it happening over the course of decades. Harry has already been successful in his lawsuit against the Mirror, not only did the judgment go his way, but he also won substantial damages and the Mirror Group had to settle all of the other claims Harry made against them. He currently still has pending lawsuits against the Sun (News Group) and the Mail. Several clips from Harry’s ITV interview were released this week, and his answers about “the family rift” and whether his mother was “paranoid” were of particular interest:
The Duke of Sussex has said that his legal crusade against the tabloid press was central to the breakdown of his relationship with his family. Prince Harry, 39, told an ITV documentary that “it would be nice” if the Royal family had joined forces to take on the media together.
He said: “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… yes. It’s caused… part of a rift.”
The Duke believes that his continuing legal fight against the press, which has involved several High Court claims, some of which are active, is largely to blame. Asked whether his determination to fight the tabloids had destroyed the relationship with his family, he told the documentary, Tabloids on Trial: “Yeah, that’s certainly a central piece to it. But, you know, that’s a hard question to answer because anything I say about my family results in a torrent of abuse from the press…I’ve made it very clear that this is something that needs to be done. It would be nice if we, you know, did it as a family. I believe that, again, 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. But, you know, I’m doing this for my reasons.”
The Duke also suggests in the documentary that his legal battles had demonstrated that his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, was not “paranoid” as many have suggested but was “absolutely right” to fear what was going on around her.
Asked whether phone hacking had made him paranoid, he said: “I think paranoia is a very interesting word because yes, then it could be paranoia, but then when you’re vindicated it proves that you weren’t being paranoid. You know, same with my mother. There is evidence to suggest that she was being hacked in the mid-1990s, 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 of what was happening to her. And she’s not around today to find out the truth.”
It is his first interview since his claim against Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) concluded in December 2023, when he was awarded £140,600 in compensation after 15 of 33 articles were found to have been the product of phone hacking or unlawful information gathering. Prince Harry called the judge’s ruling a “monumental victory”.
He said: “To go in there and come out and have the judge rule in our favour was obviously huge. But for him to go as far as he did with regard to, you know, 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.”
Obviously, the discussion about “paranoia” was particularly loaded, given that Prince William stood up in public in 2021 and called his mother paranoid and afraid, a fragile woman who was manipulated away from… being Charles’s dutiful wife, or something. Harry has always honored Diana and her efforts to tell her story, and obviously, Diana was not paranoid. They really were hacking into her phone and following her and doing all kinds of dreadful things to her.
Now, I think Harry is being very selective about what he says about the family rift and how his battle with the tabloids has changed his relationship with his family. It’s not simply that “anything I say about my family results in a torrent of abuse from the press” – it’s that anything he says results in a torrent of abuse from HIS FAMILY. But he still got some good hits in – “It would be nice if we, you know, did it as a family” and “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.” 100%
EXCL: Prince Harry tells me his legal fight with tabloids was a “central piece” in the breakdown of his relationship with his family.
In our ITV1 documentary ,Tabloids on Trial, Harry says in a “public role these are the things that we should be doing for the greater good”. pic.twitter.com/M065MbRShk
— Rebecca Barry (@BeccaBarry) July 24, 2024
EXCL: “When you’re vindicated, it proves you weren’t being paranoid”
Prince Harry tells me he experienced the same paranoia as his mother Princess Diana.
Our exclusive interview features in Tabloids on Trial on ITV1 at 9pm on Thursday pic.twitter.com/hqkk9Or21h
— Rebecca Barry (@BeccaBarry) July 24, 2024
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, ITV.
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- London, UNITED KINGDOM – Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex attends the Royal Courts of Justice as the lawsuit against Associated Newspapers enters its final day on March 30, 2023 in London, England. Prince Harry is one of several claimants in a lawsuit against Associated Newspapers, publisher of the Daily Mail. Pictured: Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex BACKGRID USA 30 MARCH 2023 BYLINE MUST READ: MediaPunch / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- London, UNITED KINGDOM – Prince Harry arrives at the High Court, Rolls Building. Several high-profile people, including Prince Harry, have taken legal action against Mirror Group Newspapers over alleged unlawful information gathering, including phone hacking. Pictured: Prince Harry BACKGRID USA 6 JUNE 2023 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- London, UNITED KINGDOM – Prince HARRY, Duke of Sussex, arrives at the Rolls Building of the High Court in London, to testify against Mirror Group Newspapers, in phone-hacking case. Pictured: 20230606_zip_k172_003.jpg BACKGRID USA 6 JUNE 2023 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- London, UNITED KINGDOM – Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, leaves the Rolls Building at the High Court in London where he testified against Mirror Group Newspapers in the phone hacking case. Pictured: Prince Harry BACKGRID USA 6 JUNE 2023 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
It’s not PH’s goal to expose his family as the sources of some things, but it would be great if the lawsuits did that.
But the lawsuits have exposed his family’s abuse and collusion with the British press. It’s just that the British media and Brits themselves refuse to discuss all this evidence.
@Jennifer: So true. The public didn’t know about William’s settlement with the Sun until it came out in Harry’s lawsuit.
Harry still doesn’t directly blame his family for their roles (passed and present) in the press harrasment, abuse and charater assisination of him and his wife. That angers me a lot. Their finger prints are in everything, open your eyes, Harry. They don’t have the same love for you as you have for them. In fact they want you gone, so that they can contiue the invisibale contract with the British press in peace – with all of them, not just with the tabloids.
@Advisor2U, how can you say that (first sentence)? He gave some grace in SPARE and interviews. He was pretty clear in the MYCS. He’s expressed members of his family owe Meghan an apology. I don’t know. I’m feeling he’s doing everything to preserve his & Meghan’s dignity. My point, he hasn’t left them out of the blame. He’s worded it carefully for his own reasons-like a lot of us do.
The lawsuits are against the media. Which were announced in Oct. 2019.
That’s right Harry stand up for your mothers honor. Your brother said the same thing that the British presss does, “she was paranoid”. What they didn’t expect is that you are everything that she hoped and keep showing your truth!.
Bravo Clove👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼!
Clove you are 100 percent right!! I agree wholeheartedly.
Why should he stop talking about her? I still talk about my long-dead mother. And she died three years before Diana.
You clearly are not being serious.
Wow, just wow. He should move on because she’s been dead a long time? First, that is just a cruel thing to say. Second, it’s not just his mother he doing all this for, it’s so his own wife doesn’t end up dead-among many other reasons.
“ it’s that anything he says results in a torrent of abuse from HIS FAMILY.”
Thank you for saying this because his ability to give his family a pass often deligitimises his message.
Both he and Princess Diana were abused by the royal family (Charles, Camilla, Peggy, etc) were abused using the press as the weapon.
That doesn’t “delegitimize” his message. We saw what the media is capable of when they go after you. Harry said multiple times that BRF is afraid of the press. When they turn on you, you are done.
@sevenblue they are not “afraid” of the press, they work with the press. The press is another arm of the institution.
Recent example is just yesterday re the frogmore story. Focus on that rather than 2 new helicopters and Chucky getting extra £45 million.
The press and the palace are a team.
@Sunshine, they are working together I know that. That doesn’t change the fact that if they don’t, they are gonna do the same thing to them. They are throwing spares to them in order to protect themselves for multiple generations. The tabloid media is the monster. That is why Harry is focusing on them, not on his family.
I mean he has already written a book and done a Netflix doc in which he accounts for the all the times his family leaked and planted stories against him. This interview is in context of the court cases with the news media. At this point, bringing up that it’s also abuse from his family might detract from the message of what the tabloids were doing. The tabloids will try to use that defense in the court cases so it’s strategic for him to focus on just the tabloids. I’d imagine he knows that his family may get exposed during the trials so no need to hammer it home in this interview. It will come out and it’ll be better for him to show and not tell in relation to his family.
I’m sorry, but I have to disagree with you. He’s done a documentary talking about his family’ poor treatment of him and his wife; Meghan talked in that docu about being “fed to the wolves.” He’s also written a book. I think you know that any message of his will be overshadowed by his family’s response, through the tabloids, to any mention of them. I’m proud of him for his bravery.
The press = the Royal Family
Exactly!
“Anything I say about my family results in a torrent of abuse from the press.” This is where I have to side eye Harry. Surely, he must know that the torrent of abuse originates with his family. The press is just the conduit. He continues to protect his family out of misplaced loyalty. And they continue the abuse. The invisible contract is all too visible.
Of course, he knows that. It’s an open secret that the RF feed the press, but it’s not something that can be proven absolutely. One can’t say “this statement definitely came from that royal,” because the press laces their stories with their own make-believe, as well. But one can definitely point to abuse by the press because it’s right there on the front page every day.
100% TRUE!! He is not going to come out and say that again… we all know what he means when he made that statement.
OMG. Please watch Harry’s interview with Anderson Cooper. He made it clear that he knew his family was siphoning abuse against him through the press. He even spoke openly about being sacrifice on an alter in Camilla’s campaign to rescue her villainous reputation. Please watch the docu series, and read his book. I don’t think he has to say it every time. I think by now the point should be well taken.
He’s made it perfectly clear in other interviews and Spare and the docuseries that he knows it comes from his family, or is at least sanctioned by his family.
But this interview is specifically about the tabloid press so that’s why he’s going to emphasize that.
It’s still his family. He has to be diplomatic in what he says and how he says it. As he said, the press will jump all over him. He is still human and some of the things they say is hurtful and causes outrage I am sure. I am not him but I still feel the same hurt and outrage.
Because your family hurts you does not mean you stop loving them. The pain of betrayal gets better with time but that does not mean he does not miss them or miss certain events they did together. We have to remember that.
It’s not our family so it is easy to disregard them but we don’t get to choose our family. So, yes especially now the focus has to be on the tabloid press. We all know who is behind it but you bring the RF in then the message gets lost. That especially what they want, to distract.
100% AGREE!
He’s being chivalrous enough to cut slack on his family while so many of them are going through serious health issues. He knows we know what he means.
He was a victim of a crime allowed to happen over and over again and it was fully endorsed by his family.. the psychological damage and abuse they inflicted upon him is unforgivable. I am looking forward to the interview, I am not looking forward to the onslaught of hate that will be churned out by the British tabloid press. I will say the timing with the interview with the release of the Royals spending and Peggy’s lack of transparency is going to be interesting.. wonder if anyone will circle back to what Peggy is so desperate to hide.
I think the lion’s share of the responsibility for this abuse lies at Charles’ feet. That man has no sense of paternal responsibility or duty at all. It’s really sick that he was openly willing to sacrifice his children for his mistress.
Very true Proud Mary. Destiny would have been so different if Diana had been around.
Charles is an abusive person. He abused his first wife, there are several example of him abusing his staff, there’s a video of him hitting his horse with his fist – so he also has abused animals. Finally, he used the press to abuse his youngest son and DiL.
This is who Charles is: an abuser.
IDKY- he was willing to sacrifice his wife and marriage for his mistress so him doing the same to his children with the woman he didn’t love isn’t surprising
No doubt they are gonna start another hate campaign because of this interview. However, after the dust settles, what we are gonna have is the historical record of a royal who went after the press for their criminal activities and the other royals who didn’t. We are still watching new docs about Diana since she left many records from her own voice. It will be the same for Harry. There is no way for them to remove his voice from history.
Huevo is fuming now. Wonderful how harry defends his mother
I think the UK and US press need a reset. It’s mind boggling what is going on with major newspapers.
It really is. Prince Harry used the phrase ‘institutional gaslighting’ and it’s very apt.
How right he was. And his mother before him too.
I blame Rupert Murdoch
I’m so proud for Harry for standing up.
I’m so proud of Harry wanting a better life for his children, and actively trying to make it so.
Diana would be so proud, and was correct in calling him Good King Harry.
Harry is Diana’s son.
Harry cannot say anything about his family because his father is the king and his brother is the heir it would be considered treasonous.
Yet Charles spoke against his parents including his mother the monarch. Through the dimbleby book. Yet he was never spoken as being treasonous. Harry spoke out to refute false stories about him and stated a fact that his security was removed . His father the king could have stopped the media from harassing harry and his family.
I agree. But Charles was an heir Harry is a subject his allegiance has to be to the sovereign.
Well then Charles was pretty treasonous in things that he has written about his own parents. Or, is this another example of one rule for the Left Behinds and another for Harry?
Huh? How is telling the truth about his family treasonous?
Yeah I don’t think that’s a thing. People are allowed to criticize their parents and they’re even allowed to criticize the king.
You obviously need to get out and touch grass.
Sadly, for Chuck and Will we aren’t in the 16th century anymore. No one is going to be marching Harry off to the Tower of London for talking about his toxic family.
But they have attacked Harry & Meghan for years by going after their income sources and hurting their reputation.
Harry isn’t trying to bring down the monarchy. That would the treason. He is talking about what happened to the relationship with his family. Just like Diana did.
Treason is acting to harm your country (in collusion with its enemies). Acting to abolish the monarchy is not treason in legal terms. Otherwise, the people who protest the institution and try to work towards its abolishment would not be able to operate as they do.
Lynn, I’m not sure what you’re relying on to determine what is treasonous, but for just one minute consider the ramifications if the UK declared Harry a traitor because he says his father won’t stop the press from coming after he and his family. I mean the ramifications globally, but I suspect people in the UK wouldn’t be happy. Can you imagine what people who are part of the movement to end the monarchy would think? Is the UK going to fill the prisons with traitors because people don’t want to continue the Monarchy and say so–especially if they name the names of the brf? That seems to be a stretch, but okay.
Of course the press hate Harry, he took them to court and won, they have been proven guilty of committing crime, it is time that the criminal court did something about it. They shouldn’t be allowed to get away with it. I wonder how much is still going on.
It’s not paranoia if someone really is out to get you.
👏👏👏
BINGO.
People on social media are attacking him for the family rift comment, saying how the rift is because of Oprah and the docuseries and Spare – but all that overlooks the fact that the rift started well before that, the rift is the REASON For those things – and yes, Harry’s refusal to play along with the tabloids and British press is a big reason for the rift. He talks about in Spare, about Charles refusing to go against the press.
That is the stupidest argument. There was a rift. That is why they did Oprah, book and doc to talk about what happened, to give their side of the story. Otherwise, there would be nothing to say to Oprah.
I know! its ridiculous. I’m like…….uhhhhh there was a rift and that’s why they left? The royal family refused to protect them against the press and actively worked with the press to sabotage them?
I don’t argue because there’s no way really to argue with bots. (And I can tell they’re bots bc they’re all saying the same thing.)
Meghan said she wanted to go because of the racist British media. The late Queens could have put a stop to it, she didn’t neither did her son, Harry’s father. Charles didn’t even complain when his grandson was being racially abused.
Harry very well knows that his family are behind most of the press attacks against him.
He does. But imagine what would happen if he spelled that out at this particular moment. The rota would shriek about him attacking his family — because telling the truth apparently is attacking them — now, when the king has cancer and his wife is bravely soldiering on!!!
I don’t believe in kings, but if I did, Harry would fit the definition. Unlike his pathetic brother, Harry continues to stand up for his mother. I hope William, in his wrath, also feels at least a kernel of shame.
I’ll be watching the documentary but, I do wonder when Harry says “do it as a family” he’s really expressing his disappointment in his brother. William as the heir was in a prime position to take down Murdoch for what they did to his mother but, instead the greedy heir chose to take the hush money. We all saw what happened to Diana in real time and how the tabloids set out to destroy her but, William went for the easy target and only attacked the BBC for a documentary where she told her side of the story. Yes, I know Bashir was a slimeball for how he got her to go on the record but, that doesn’t mean what she was saying was untrue.
For those giving Harry a “side-eye” for saying his court cases were/are part of the rift. Harry mentions in Spare at how both William and his father took him aside at Prince Phillip’s funeral to try to dissuade him from going to court. Neither were interested in him or how he was doing they just wanted to put pressure on him to prevent him from going forward.
I LOVE hat Harry refused to listen to his awful brother and used his wealth and privilege to prove what a bunch of lying vipers the tabloids were/are. Diana wasn’t a saint but, she also wasn’t paranoid and hats off to Harry for standing by her.
William took the money, Harry took the stand!
I agree that I think he’s most disappointed in William. He talked about how he and William vowed never to play those kinds of press games and now William is all in with the press.
Nobody is a saint. I’ve often wondered about some references to Diana that she was not a saint. I know negative things have been written about her by Ingrid and penny . She was not a saint but not the bad person Charles supporters try to make her out to be. Diana was shamefully rejected by that family who did not like that she fought back. William by calling his mother paranoid did betray her. If Charles had not let the media harass harry and Meghan the media would have backed down
@Becks1 – ITA. William is proof that “absolute power corrupts absolutely.” He may have “sacked” Camilla’s sister but, that doesn’t make up for betraying his mother and brother. Probably the only two adults who loved him unconditionally.
@Tessa – Bad choice of words on my parts and you’re right the “not a saint” narrative was encouraged by Seward et. el. What I should have said was: “Diana wasn’t a bad person and she also wasn’t paranoid.”
Diana’s legacy is interesting because there is no middle ground – she is either an infallible legend for some, or she’s the mentally ill product of a broken home who went out of her way to ruin her own marriage and manipulate her children etc.
Neither is true but people tend to forget that. Sometimes it feels like there is no space to objectively talk about her.
William & Co./BRF protected Christian Jones over Harry & Meghan. Security was pulled. William betrayed Harry over and over again.
Along with Charles, Pa.
If I were Harry , I would have said f it a long time ago and just say . My dog s blood relatives are the media/devil hand maiden the media does me dirty because my family gives them the green light to do so time and time again. However Harry likes to be the mature one and still Carries hope and love in his heart foe those soul sucking disgrace of people he calls family . Ain’t no redemption for that lot as far as I am concerned not after all the evil deeds they have done and continue to do to Harry , Meghan and their children
Not a good look for the monarchy. They are willing to ignore media wrong doings in return for good press.
You’re not paranoid if they’re really after you.
I plan to look at this interview very soon-Based on some things said in it-Harry is trying to be reserved in his feelings about the family’s part in the press smearing and attacking-People need to keep in mind Harry has a wife and two small children to protect and he knows how very evil minded the UK press is-they work for the royal family whether directly or indirectly-he wants the rules changed on how the press operates-if his father has any caring for Harry and his family he would do what is necessary for their security-if he does not then the world knows what kind of father he really is
Harry’s face has been all over the newspapers because of this ITV documentary. The picture used for several front pages was so beautiful. Harry was pensive and not smiling but the picture was so deep and soulful I was really moved by its haunting beauty.
You know, there’s a lot of things a person can do, but selling out your mother, and selling her out when she is dead, that’s just reprehensible. As is her oldest hook-nosed, hairless, horse-teethed, pointy headed, dim-witted, moose-knuckled, myopically self-absorbed cowardly son.