Prince Harry talks ‘phone hacking’ in Tabloids on Trial

Prince Harry has described a judge’s ruling that he had been hacked as a ‘monumental victory’ in his first major interview since the conclusion of his court case with Mirror Group Newspapers in a new ITV1 documentary.

Speaking in Tabloids On Trial, which airs on ITV1, STV, STV Player and ITVX tomorrow at 9pm Prince Harry tells ITV News‘ Rebecca Barry that just to have the judge rule in his favour was ‘huge’. The first British royal in living memory to give evidence in court – in December 2023, a judge ruled The Duke had been the target of unlawful information gathering.

He says: “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.”

Rebecca Barry, who has reported on the hacking scandal for more than a decade, asked the Duke of Sussex to reflect on some of the headlines the judge ruled on in his civil case. Looking at a headline from the time about his then-girlfriend Chelsy Davy apparently preparing to split with him, the Prince tells Rebecca: “Harry’s girl to dump him – seems as though they knew something before I even did.”

He also says: “I think there’s a lot of I guess, paranoia, fear, worry, concern, distrust in the people around you, clearly a headline like that has absolutely no public interest whatsoever.  There’s a big difference between what interests the public and what is public interest, so what happens in my private life between myself and [my] then-girlfriend is exactly that, between us.”

Prince Harry also speaks about his mother Princess Diana when Rebecca asks him whether hacking made him paranoid, saying: “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.

“You know, there is evidence to suggest that she was being hacked in the mid-nineties, 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.”

While it’s never been proven in court that Princess Diana was hacked, the past remains raw. Prince Harry’s settled case against Mirror Group Newspapers isn’t the only lawsuit on the table. He is playing a pivotal part in two other live cases, against News Group Newspapers and Associated Newspapers, where the allegations are strongly denied.

When asked if his determination to fight the tabloids destroyed the relationship with his family, Prince Harry says: “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.”

When Barry asks: “What do you think of their decision not to fight in the way that you have?” He says: “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, it has, yes. It’s caused, yeah, as you say, part of a rift.”

In the documentary, Rebecca Barry meets other high-profile celebrities including Hugh Grant, Charlotte Church and Paul Gascoigne as well as people catapulted into the public eye, whose lives were ripped apart by some newspapers.

One of those is Paul Dadge, who helped victims after the terror attack at Edgware Road on July 7, 2005. He was photographed helping an injured woman wearing a protective mask – it would become one of the defining images of the attack. At the time, Dadge spoke to journalists at the scene and gave out his mobile number. He was later contacted by police who told him he had been hacked by the News of the World.

Dadge says: “We weren’t celebrities. This wasn’t salacious gossip. We were just normal people who got involved in a horrific incident. When something like this happens, it makes you feel very vulnerable because you’ve lost control of the story of what you want to tell and what you don’t want to tell. And that’s very, very hard, it does take its toll on you.”

Paul Dadge settled his voicemail interception case against the publishers of the News of the World in 2011. They expressed regret for the distress caused. It’s been almost two decades since the story broke, and subsequent legal actions have claimed that hacking was apparently just the start, with victims accusing some of Britain’s biggest newspapers of tapping landlines, fitting properties with listening devices and even burglaries to order – in the name of journalism – allegations that have been strongly denied.

Featuring Prince Harry’s first major interview since the conclusion of his court case with Mirror Group Newspapers this documentary hears about his mission to continue his fight to expose the illegal tactics of Britain’s tabloid press and explores what those in charge at Fleet Street really knew as this scandal unfolded.

Against a backdrop of new and impending civil trials, Rebecca speaks to the journalists and private investigators who stopped at nothing to get their headline and asks what should happen next.

In response to the programme Mirror Group Newspapers said: “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.”

Tabloids On Trial ITV1, STV, STV Player and ITVX 9pm Thursday