The British Royal Family is split.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s conduct sits at the center of the dispute.
And now Prince Harry has revealed it was this massive scandal that caused the rift in the Royal Family.
Prince Harry wins phone hacking scandal case
In December 2023, a judge ruled in favor of Prince Harry that British publications The Daily Mirror, The Sunday Mirror, and The People illegally intercepted his voice mails and other private information.
This was the culmination of a battle that began in 2005 with the phone hacking scandal that rocked the British press.
In an interview with ITV, Prince Harry expressed satisfaction with the ruling.
“To have the judge rule in our favor was obviously huge. But for him to go as far as he did… 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,” Harry stated.
The judge’s ruling proved that top officials at the outlets knew the basis of articles of past girlfriends, Harry’s deployment to Afghanistan, and his conversations with his brother Prince William were illegally obtained.
“When you’re vindicated,” Prince Harry declared, adding that “it proves that you weren’t being paranoid.”
In 2005, the Mirror Group Newspapers hired private investigators to obtain his credit card information and phone bills from his then-girlfriend, Chelsy Davy.
“That has absolutely no public interest whatsoever,” Harry said of that information.
“There’s a big difference between what interests the public and what is in the public interest. What happens in my private life between myself and my then-girlfriend is exactly that, between us,” Harry added.
The rift with the Royal Family
Harry became the first member of the Royal Family to testify in open court in more than 100 years in this case.
The judge awarded Harry 140,000 pounds in damages and the Mirror Group had to reportedly pay “substantial” damages that began with a 400,000 pound payment.
Prince William quietly settled his case.
And Harry admitted that the decision to fight this case publicly in court and testify drove a wedge in the Royal Family.
“I’ve made it very clear that this (legal action) is something that needs to be done. It would be nice if we did it as a family,” Harry told ITV.
“I believe that 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,” Harry added.
“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 caused… part of a rift,” Harry continued.
Prince Harry tells @BeccaBarry his legal fight with the tabloids is a “central piece” in the breakdown of his relationship with his family.
In an ITV1 documentary, Tabloids on Trial, the Duke of Sussex says in a “public role these are the things that we should be doing for the… pic.twitter.com/D396ue6DH4
— ITV News (@itvnews) July 24, 2024
