Prince Harry does not blame Queen Elizabeth II for backing an alleged secret phone-hacking deal between the royal family and Rupert Murdoch’s newspapers, the high court has heard.
The prince alleges there was a private arrangement between the monarchy and the publisher of the Sun to keep the royals out of the courtroom.
Harry’s legal filings suggest his grandmother knew about the deal, under which the royals agreed not to sue the newspaper publisher in return for receiving an apology and settlement at a later date. Murdoch’s company, News Group Newspapers (NGN), denies there was any such deal.
On Tuesday, the high court was told that, when NGN failed to apologise, Queen Elizabeth personally threatened it with legal proceedings over phone hacking only for her efforts to be undermined by the then Prince Charles.
Harry’s searing witness statement, in which he also said that Prince William received a previously undisclosed payoff to settle a phone-hacking claim, prompted suggestions that the duke had scuppered any hope of a reconciliation with his brother and father when he attends next week’s coronation ceremony.
Harry’s barrister, David Sherborne, told the court that the prince understood why the royal family had agreed to a deal: “If it needs to be said – and apparently it does – this is no criticism of the Queen or his family, and he accepted it, because he had to.”
Sherborne said that Harry had been “kept out of the loop” by the rest of the royal family on the existence of secret deal, only learning about in 2012. The lawyer told Mr Justice Fancourt that Harry had asked him “to express his frustration” at not being present at the high court but he had been unable to travel from his home in California.
Sherborne, speaking on day two of the hearing, added that Harry was coming back for his father’s coronation and would be in London when his separate case against the publisher of the Mirror goes to trial next month.
“He is also following by video link despite the time challenges,” Sherborne told the court on day two of the hearing.
In a potential blow to Harry’s case, the judge overseeing the case said he was troubled by an “inconsistency” in his allegations. Harry claims he knew about the alleged secret deal that prevented him bringing a legal case against Murdoch’s company in 2012 – while also claiming he only fully appreciated the scale of phone hacking properly in 2019.
Murdoch’s company argues Harry waited too long to file his legal case as he should have realised he was a potential victim of phone hacking at the time.
By way of mitigation, Sherborne said Harry was serving in the army at the time of many of the key phone-hacking revelations and had limited access to publications that were reporting on voicemail interception at the News of the World and other outlets.
The lawyer said: “He was on active service in Afghanistan and they didn’t have the Guardian.”
