Prince Harry blames tabloids for ‘inciting hatred’ – and casting him as a ‘thicko’ and ‘playboy’

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Prince Harry has blamed the tabloid press for “inciting hatred and harassment” in his private life, saying he ended up “playing up to a lot of the headlines” when he was cast as a “playboy prince” as a young royal.

Details of Harry‘s accusations against the publisher of the Mirror newspaper were released in his witness statement as he begins giving evidence in court.

The Duke of Sussex wrote: “I genuinely feel that in every relationship that I’ve ever had – be that with friends, girlfriends, with family or with the army, there’s always been a third party involved, namely the tabloid press.”

He said he was bringing the claim “to hold people to account for what they have done, so that they can’t hide behind their own institution or organisation”, and that he was “determined to get to the bottom of it once and for all”.

Because of the personality he had been portrayed as, every time he walked into a room he “expected people to be thinking ‘he’s obviously going to fail this test, because he’s a thicko’.”

Harry, 38, is suing the publisher, attempting to prove that reporters for the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and Sunday People titles were linked to methods including phone hacking, so-called “blagging” or gaining information by deception, and use of private investigators, between 1996 and 2010.

MGN is contesting the claims and has either denied or not admitted each of them. The publisher also argues that some of the claimants have brought their legal action too late.

Prince Harry trial – latest: Harry in the witness box

On Monday, lawyers for both sides made their opening arguments, with David Sherborne, for Harry, claiming that Mirror journalists listened to voicemail messages from Princess Diana while Piers Morgan was editor of the newspaper.

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He also told the court how alleged intrusion caused “mistrust” between Harry and Prince William, and that “the ups and downs and ins and outs” of his relationship with ex-girlfriend Chelsy Davy “were all revealed and picked apart by the three Mirror Group titles” – something that was “clearly driven by unlawful activity”.

There was “no time” in Harry’s life “when he was safe from this activity”, the barrister said, adding: “Nothing was sacrosanct or out of bounds and there was no protection from this unlawful information gathering.”

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In his opening statement, MGN’s lawyer, Andrew Green, told the court there was no evidence to support the duke’s claims.

It was “obvious” that security arrangements around Harry “were like very few on Earth”, he said, and that any journalist “would know they would be taking an absolutely enormous risk” in carrying out any unlawful activity around the royal.

He also dismissed the claim that Princess Diana’s voicemails were hacked as “total speculation” and “without any evidential basis whatsoever”.

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Read more:Harry v Mirror publisher – the opening statements’Devastation’ and ‘discord’: Explosive start to court battle

Harry did not attend Monday’s court session – much to the “surprise” of the judge, Mr Justice Fancourt – as he only flew into the UK from Los Angeles on Sunday night, having celebrated his daughter Lilibet’s second birthday earlier that day, Mr Sherborne said.

Harry in Court – Watch special programme on Sky News tonight at 9pm