It was the first time Prince Harry spoke publicly about the conflict in the Royal Family. ‘Anything I say about my family results in a torrent of abuse from the Press,’ he added.
Prince Harry has revealed the “central” reason behind his ongoing fight. No, it was not Meghan Markle he spoke about.
According to the Duke of Sussex, the phone hacking scandal is a major factor in his family’s conflict. During his interview with ITV, he blamed the Press.
It was the first time Harry spoke publicly about the Royal Family’s rift. “To what extent do you think that your determination to fight the tabloids destroyed the relationship with your family,” he was asked.
“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 said.
FILE PHOTO: It’s not Meghan Markle: Prince Harry reveals ‘central’ reason behind conflict with Royal Family REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo(REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo)
Harry mentions that he wishes his family had joined him in battling the tabloids, but he is also pursuing this fight for his own reasons.
“I made it very clear that this 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’re in a public role, these are the things that we should be doing for the greater good,” Harry said.
“But, you know I’m doing this for my reasons,” he added.
When asked by the interviewer about his thoughts on the Royal Family’s decision not to fight as he had, Harry responded that everything that had happened revealed the truth of the situation to him. He mentioned that his mission would continue but acknowledged that it did cause a rift.
High Court ruling in Harry’s favour
In December 2023, a judge in London’s High Court ruled that extensive phone hacking occurred over 15 years during the 1990s and 2000s, including Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) hacking the Duke of Sussex’s phone to a modest extent.
Harry’s attorney, David Sherborne, announced during a hearing that a settlement had been reached between MGN and the prince. Harry was awarded £140,600 (over ₹1.5 crore) in damages after the court found that 15 out of 33 sample articles in his claim resulted from phone hacking or other unlawful information gathering.