Prince Harry will become the first senior British royal to give evidence in court for more than a century when he testifies this week against a tabloid newspaper publisher.<\/p>\n
Harry, 38, is expected to take the witness stand at London\u2019s High Court in a trial considering unlawful information-gathering claims against Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN).<\/p>\n
King Charles III\u2019s younger son and other high-profile figures allege that the publisher engaged in illegal activities, including phone hacking, at its titles and are seeking damages.<\/p>\n
The case is one of several that Harry has brought against British newspaper groups since stepping down from royal duties in early 2020 and relocating to the United States.<\/p>\n
The MGN trial, which is expected to last up to seven weeks, kicked off last month, days after Charles\u2019s May 6 coronation which Harry attended.<\/p>\n
The California-based prince also made a surprise appearance at the High Court in March for a privacy claim he and others have launched against Associated Newspapers (ANL), publisher of the Daily Mail.<\/p>\n
Harry, the Duke of Sussex, made written submissions in that case but did not give in-person evidence, sitting near the back of the court during several days of proceedings.<\/p>\n
His appearance on the stand, expected Tuesday, is said to be the first time a senior royal has given evidence in court since Edward VII, who took the stand in an 1890 slander trial before becoming monarch.<\/p>\n
Harry, who is fifth in line to the throne, has had a difficult relationship with the media, especially since he and his American wife Meghan left Britain.<\/p>\n
As well as filing multiple lawsuits, the couple has repeatedly lashed out over alleged privacy invasions by photographers in particular.<\/p>\n
Just weeks ago, they claimed to have been involved in a \u201cnear catastrophic car chase\u201d with paparazzi in New York, an incident police and other officials played down.<\/p>\n
Harry\u2019s mother, Princess Diana, was killed in a 1997 Paris car crash as she was being pursued by photographers.<\/p>\n
He has also challenged the UK government in court over his security arrangements when he is back from the United States.<\/p>\n
But on May 23, he lost his bid for a legal review of a decision refusing him permission to pay for specialist UK police protection himself.<\/p>\n
In television interviews and his explosive memoir \u201cSpare\u201d \u2014 released in January \u2014 Harry hit out at other royals, accusing them of colluding with the press.<\/p>\n
In court filings unveiled in April, Harry claimed the royal family as an institution had struck a \u201csecret agreement\u201d with one UK publisher that had prevented him from suing, to avoid a royal entering the witness box.<\/p>\n
He also alleged the monarchy wanted to prevent the opening of a \u201cPandora\u2019s Box\u201d of negative coverage that could tarnish the royal brand.<\/p>\n
The MGN case centres on claims its tabloids conducted unlawful information-gathering, including voicemail tapping, to obtain stories about Harry and other high-profile figures.<\/p>\n
The other claimants are two television soap opera actors and the ex-wife of a comedian.<\/p>\n
At the outset of the trial on May 10, MGN apologised and admitted to \u201csome evidence\u201d of unlawful information-gathering and assured that \u201csuch conduct will never be repeated\u201d.<\/p>\n
But it denied voicemail interception and argued that some claims had been brought too late.<\/p>\n
The claimants\u2019 lawyer David Sherborne submitted that \u201cindustrial scale\u201d illegal activities were happening at MGN and had been approved by senior executives.<\/p>\n
Harry\u2019s unofficial biographer Omid Scobie \u2014 who co-authored a best-selling 2020 book about Harry and Meghan \u2014 claimed in a submission that he was shown how to hack voicemails while on work experience at MGN title The Sunday People.<\/p>\n
Scobie also said that while on work experience at its sister paper The Mirror he overheard the then-editor Piers Morgan being told that information for a story about Australian pop star Kylie Minogue had come from voicemail.<\/p>\n
Morgan, editor of the tabloid between 1995 and 2004, has denied any involvement in phone hacking.<\/p>\n
AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Prince Harry will become the first senior British royal to give evidence in court for more than a century when he testifies this week against a tabloid newspaper publisher. Harry, 38, is expected to take the witness stand at London\u2019s High Court in a trial considering unlawful information-gathering claims against Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN). King […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t