Prince Harry has revealed that he will not bring his wife Meghan Markle back to the U.K. because he fears for their safety in light of the amount of negative press they have received.
The prince told the ITV documentary Tabloids on Trial, which aired in the U.K. Thursday night, that “all it takes is one lone actor, one person who reads this stuff, to act on what they have read.”
Asked if he was seeking attention through the court battles with the tabloid press, Harry said: “There is more than enough attention on me and my wife anyway. There was... they pushed me too far. It got to a point where you’re damned if you do, you’re damned if you don’t.
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“I don’t think there’s anybody else in the world that is better suited and placed to be able to see this through than myself. It’s still dangerous. And all it takes is one lone actor, one person who reads this stuff, to act on what they have read... And whether it’s a knife or acid, whatever it is. And these are things that are a genuine concern for me. It’s one of the reasons why I won’t bring my wife back to this country.”
The documentary is the first time Harry has spoken about his monumental win against Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) last year when Justice Fancourt ruled that his voicemails had been intercepted, and that his private information was illegally obtained by newspapers owned by MGN. Harry said he felt “vindicated” by the win.
Two further cases against the publisher were dropped after the royal was awarded around $379,000 in damages and his legal costs were repaid by Mirror Group. In the documentary, Harry hailed the outcome as a “monumental victory.”
Harry’s case against News Group Newspapers (NGN), which owns the Sun and the now-defunct News of the World, is ongoing. A full trial on whether the newspapers unlawfully gathered information and hacked the prince’s phone is set to begin in early 2025. (It has been reported that the phone hacking scandal has so far cost Rupert Murdoch’s British tabloid business over $1.25 billion.)
The prince has also joined celebrities including Elton John and Elizabeth Hurley to take on Britain’s largest newspaper company, Associated Newspapers Limited, which owns the Daily Mail.
In the documentary, Harry described his legal battles with the press as a “David v.s. Goliath situation" and said that lawyers and high-up media executives were involved in the scandal, claiming “it went right to the top.”
“This is a David v Goliath situation,” he told ITV. “The Davids are the claimants and the Goliath is this vast media enterprise. I’m trying to get justice for everybody. I don’t think there is anybody better in the world to see this through than myself.”
Prince Harry, left, and Rebecca Barry in ITV documentary 'Tabloids on Trial.'
ITVHarry has also claimed that his commitment to fight the tabloid press has been a “central point” in the tensions between him and the royal family.
“I made it very clear that this is something that needs to be done,” Harry told ITV of the court battles. “It would be nice if we, you know, did it as a family. I believe that again, from a service standpoint, and when you’re in a public role, that these are things that we should be doing for the greater good.”
Harry said he had many conversations with his grandmother, the late Queen Elizabeth, before she died, and that his fight against the tabloids was something she backed.
“We had many conversations before she passed," he said. “This is very much something she supported.” Indicating the sky, he said: “She knew how much this meant to me and she’s very much up there going ‘See this through to the end’ without question.”
Harry also rejected accusations that his mother, the late Princess Diana, was “paranoid” in regards to her relationship with the tabloid press, suggesting that she was likely one of the first people to be hacked in the mid-90s. It has never been proven in court that his mother was hacked by the tabloids.
Harry said there was “evidence to suggest” Diana was hacked in the 1990s and was therefore “probably one of the first” victim of hacking by the British press, but the tabloids still continue “painting her as being paranoid.”
Diana, Princess of Wales (1961 - 1997) attends a dinner at the British Embassy in Washington, DC, November 1985.
Terry Fincher/Princess Diana Archive/Getty Images“But she wasn’t paranoid,” Harry says. “She was absolutely right of what was happening to her, and she’s not around today to find out the truth.”
Harry’s brother and heir to the throne Prince William has in the past referred to his mother’s “fear, isolation and paranoia.” William settled out of court with NGN in 2020.
ITV spoke to former News of the World journalist Paul McMullan who told them that reporters stole things and would use “blagging” to obtain information. In one case he rang up a hotel that musician Bob Geldof was staying in pretending to be his accountant so he could obtain his bill and find out who his girlfriend was. McMullan said there is no difference between what interests the public and the public interest.
The judge in the Mirror Group case also said editors including Piers Morgan were aware phones were being hacked.
Morgan, whose attacks on Harry and Meghan have been unrelenting, hit back after Harry’s win against Mirror Group by stating the prince “wouldn’t know the truth if it slapped him around his California-tanned face.”
MGN in 2005 used private investigators to get hold of Harry’s then-girlfriend Chelsy Davy’s phone bills, credit card information and flight details.
“That has absolutely no public interest whatsoever,” Harry said in the documentary. “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.”
