Prince Harry has revealed that the royal family’s unwillingness to join him in taking on Britain’s notorious tabloid media in a courtroom battle that he’s been fighting – and winning – for the past few years is a “central piece” to the rift that’s formed between them as he opted for the “greater good.”

The Duke of Sussex did not elaborate on the matter when questioned about the cause of his estrangement from his older brother, Prince William, and father King Charles.

While Harry moved his family to southern California with his wife, Meghan Markle, in June 2020, he has returned to London intermittently as a legal battle against several tabloid papers has unfolded in the high courts there.

When asked by ITV’s Rebecca Barry if the extent of his determination to fight the tabloids “destroyed the relationship with your family,” he replied, “I think that’s certainly a central piece to it. But that’s a hard question to answer because anything I say about my family results in a torrent of abuse from the press.”
Harry’s interview with the British cable network is part of the network’s new documentary Tabloids on Trial, which looks at the 2011 phone hacking scandal that involved celebrities and everyday people who were part of some of the country’s major news stories. Victims claim reporters and editors from multiple Red Tops – including the Daily Mirror, now-shuttered News of the World and Daily Mail – were tapping lines with listening devices.

On Dec. 15, Prince Harry was awarded £140,600 ($178,255) by a British high court, which said there was “extensive” phone hacking by Mirror Group Newspapers from 2006 to 2011 The judge overseeing the case declared that there was clear evidence that private investigators had been “integral” at the red top tabloids. On Feb. 9, it was learned that MGN would also be covering Harry’s legal costs and damages plus sending an interim payment of £400,000 ($505,000).

“I’ve made it very clear that this is something that needs to be done, it would be nice if we did it as a family,” Prince Harry told ITV. “I believe that, from a service standpoint and when you’re in a public role, these are the things that we should be doing for the greater good. I’m doing this for my reasons.”

In April 2023, while trying to save his case from being tossed out as it came to the court too late, lawyers for Harry stated, that a secret deal was signed off on by Queen Elizabeth in which a large sum of money was paid to the royal family and they could avoid “private and highly sensitive voicemails” from two decades prior being read in open court; in exchange, no suits would be filed from Buckingham Palace.

At the time, that decision seemingly torpedoed Harry’s chance to take his case to court, his lawyers said in court documents obtained by NBC News. Built a judge ruled that Harry and actor Hugh Grant’s cases could move forward; his success here came with the assertion that the family agreement with the outlet hindered the timing of his lawsuit.

“I think everything that’s played out has shown people what the truth of the matter is,” Harry said in the interview. “For me, the mission continues, but yes, it’s caused part of a rift.”

The royal also invoked his late mother, Princess Diana, as one of “the first people to be hacked” by the tabloids. She was famously killed in Paris in 1997 while being chased by paparazzi.

“And yet, still today, the press – the tabloid press – very much enjoy painting her as being paranoid,” he said. “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.

Tabloids On Trial airs on ITV1 & ITVX at 9 p.m. GMT/2 p.m. PT on July 25. It also features interviews with Grant, singer Charlotte Church and others surrounding the case.