Prince Harry has claimed that his grandmother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, is “up there” supporting his battle against the tabloid press.
In an explosive interview with ITV, the Duke of Sussex, said he had spoken to his grandmother on several occasions about his decision to take on the press over phone-hacking allegations and is sure he still has her support.
“We had many conversations before she passed and this is very much something that she supported,” he said on ITV’s Tabloids on Trial. “She knew how much this meant to me and she’s very much up there saying ‘see this through to the end’, without question.”
Harry made the claims while giving his first major interview since the conclusion of his court case against Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), in which a High Court judge ruled the group had unlawfully gathered information for stories published about him.
It seemed that while the late Queen supported his wishes to fight the case, other members of his family were not in such agreement.
The prince revealed his legal battle as a “central piece” in the ongoing rift between himself and his family. Harry alleged in the High Court claim last year that William reached a settlement rather than go to court with News Group Newspapers (NGN) for a “huge sum of money” over hacking claims in 2020.
The duke also claimed he could not bring his own claim sooner because of a “secret agreement” between ‘The Firm’ and senior NGN executives, and that his bid for an apology from media mogul Rupert Murdoch was blocked by Charles’s staff.
Asked on the programme if his determination to fight the tabloids hurt his relationship with his family, Harry said: “Yeah, that’s certainly a central piece to it.
“But, you know, it’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.”
Also in the programme, the duke said he would not bring his wife, Meghan Markle, back to the UK over fears for both their safety as a result of negative news stories.
He said how it would take just “one lone actor” who had read such articles to use “a knife or acid” to harm him or his wife.
The pair stepped down from their roles as senior members of the royal family in 2020 and now live in Montecito, California. While Harry has returned for occasional visits, including to see his father briefly following his cancer diagnosis, Meghan has not been back to the UK since Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral in 2022.
Asked whether he’s just seeking attention through the court battles, he said: “There is more than enough attention on me and my wife anyway.
“There was… they [the press] pushed me too far. It got to a point where you’re damned if you do, you’re damned if you don’t. I don’t think there’s anybody else in the world that is better suited and placed to be able to see this through than myself.
“It’s still dangerous. And all it takes is one lone actor, one person who reads this stuff, to act on what they have read… and whether it’s a knife or acid, whatever it is.
“These are things that are a genuine concern for me. It’s one of the reasons why I won’t bring my wife back to this country.”
The prince is still fighting legal battles against the Daily Mail and The Sun publishers and also lost a High Court challenge against the UK Home Office over his security when in the country.
MGN said in response to the programme: “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.”