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Daily Record
Daily Record
Entertainment
Emily Ferguson & Nicola Croal

Prince Harry claims tabloids destroyed his relationships and 'want him to be single'

Prince Harry has claimed the tabloids have tried to break up his relationships over the years including his current marriage with Meghan Markle.

The Duke told the High Court that the media's "twisted objective" to destroy his relationships has continued to this day despite the fact he is now married with two children.

The King's youngest son, who tied the knot with Meghan Markle in 2018, claimed he has always tried to a supportive partner in his relationships but stated that "every woman has her limit".

The father-of-two said in evidence: "Unfortunately, they are not just in a relationship with me but with the entire tabloid press as the third party."

Harry alleged that he and his former girlfriend Chelsy Davy, whom he had an on-and-off relationship with from 2004 to 2011, were "never on our own" and could never enjoy their own privacy away from the "prying eyes of tabloids", the Express reports.

The Duke told the High Court that media harassment puts strain and distrust onto his former relationships including his marriage with Meghan Markle (ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Image)

The Duke accused MGN of previously blagging the couple's flight details and hotel bookings, and/or intercepting their voicemails after journalists showed up while they holidayed on a small island off Mozambique.

The royal claims that the former couple's circle of pals became smaller as he found it hard to trust anyone, which led to spells of paranoia and depression.

Harry alleged that media harassment broke up his relationship with his ex. He said: "Ultimately, these factors led (Chelsy) to make the decision that a royal life was not for her, which was incredibly upsetting for me at the time."

In his witness statement, as part of his individual case against MGN over claims of unlawful information gathering, he said: "I always felt as if the tabloids wanted me to be single, as I was much more interesting to them and sold more newspapers.

"Whenever I got into a relationship, they were very keen to report the details but would then, very quickly, seek to try and break it up by putting as much strain on it and creating as much distrust as humanly possible... This twisted objective is still pursued to this day even though I'm now married."

Harry claims that his former relationship with Chelsy Davy ended because of the pressure put on them by the media (Mark Cuthbert/UK Press via Getty Images)

The duke added: "At no point did I have a girlfriend or a relationship with anyone without the tabloids getting involved and ultimately trying to ruin it using whatever unlawful means at their disposal."

He alleged that nowhere was "off limits" for the defendant's newspapers and argued that anytime rumours of him seeing someone romantically circulated that the "whole person's family, and often their friends, would be dragged into the chaos and find themselves the subject of unlawful activity on the part of MGN" which he added is "horrible" for anyone.

Harry alleged that one of his ex girlfriends was warned by her concerned family about their relationship who asked her: "Is it really worth all the aggravation?" and the couple's relationship ended shortly afterwards.

The Duke of Sussex also detailed a 2007 story in The People about his then-girlfriend Ms Davy's worries for his safety over his proposed military deployment to Iraq which he described as "so violating".

He continued to add that he believed journalists had spied on he and Ms Davy's private messages, saying: "This article once more shows it's not my career and professional life that the defendant's journalists were interested in, but very private, raw emotions between me and my partner."

His statement also touched on a conversation between the royal and Ms Davy in which he promised her he had not been given a lap dance at the Spearmint Rhino club in 2006.

Referring to a story in The People which reported that Ms Davy had gone "berserk" and hung up on Harry over the night out, the Duke said: "I don't think Chelsy did go mad about me going there.

Harry has accused MGN of listening into his private voicemails and messages (Kate Green/Getty Images)

"We did speak about it over the phone, but I promised her that I hadn't had a lap dance and stayed with the three other cadets that had girlfriends."

The royal concluded that he believed that journalists had access to one of their phone records and "put two and two together to make a story".

The father-of-two is suing MGN for damages which also include the Sunday Mirror and Sunday People and has accused the newspapers of unlawful perception of voicemail phone hacking, so-called "blagging" or gaining information by deception or through use of private investigators for unlawful activities.

MGN is contesting the claims and neither confirmed nor denied being guilty of each of them.

An MGN spokesperson said: “Where historical wrongdoing has taken place, we have made admissions, take full responsibility and apologise unreservedly, but we will vigorously defend against allegations of wrongdoing where our journalists acted lawfully.

"MGN is now part of a very different company. We are committed to acting with integrity and our objective in this trial is to allow both the business and our journalists to move forward from events that took place many years ago.”

The trial continues.

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