Prince Harry will write history when, perhaps as early as tomorrow, he will appear before the High Court in London. It will be the first time since the late 1800s that a member of the Royal House appears before a judge, albeit as a witness.
The case is one of the chapters in Harry’s battle against the tabloids: he accuses the Mirror Group journalists of having worked for years using every method, even illegal, to give news about him; he even accuses them of hacking into his phone messages to listen to what he was saying and what his relatives and friends were saying.
Harry points his finger at the Daily Mirror, the Sunday Mirror and The People, who would have taken advantage of a flaw in the phones to access his voicemails and listen to them. The allegations concern stories dating back, in some cases, more than 20 years ago.
For him, battling the tabloids is now something of a full-time job; and the trial is one of three that Harry has launched against the British press (the other two are against the Daily Mail and the Murdoch group newspaper) which he accuses of being at the origin of the death of his mother, Princess Diana, of the many problems that he had in his youth, of the feud in the Royal Family and even of his farewell to the United Kingdom.
Today, however, he did not appear, and certainly his absence must not have disposed the judges well. The prince, explained his lawyer, arrived in the United Kingdom only on Sunday evening because he wanted to celebrate the birthday of his daughter, Lilibet, who turned two yesterday Sunday with his family.
So, no deposition today, we won’t talk about it again at least until tomorrow. Today the lawyers of the parties spoke. In his complaint, David Sherborne, the prince’s lawyer said that Harry had heavy attacks of “depression” after breaking up with one of his long-time girlfriends, Chelsy Davy: the two boys felt surrounded so much that they began to suspect friends and the their circle of relationships became narrower day by day.
But at a certain point Chelsy decided that it was too much, that the intrusion of the media was such that “life in the Royal House was not for her”: he “was little more than a child”, he was 19 at the time, and the separation was “extraordinarily hard” for him.
The lawyers of Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) have already told the judge that they can demonstrate that, in the vast majority of cases, the news they published was simply the result of the good connections of their journalists with the entourage of the Court.
«There is no evidence of hacking, «”Zilch, Zero, Nil, de Nada, Niente, Nothing»”», thundered Andrew Green, Mgn’s lawyer. The judge will have to decide who is right and many cases are certainly emotionally involving: for example, when in 1996 the Daily Mirror reported that Diana spent only 20 minutes with the prince on her 12th birthday.
Today’s taste suggests that Harry is expected to face an all-uphill test. Witnessing in person hides risks: it is certainly not one of the interviews the prince is used to, “it’s not like answering Oprah Winfrey’s questions,” as one commentator said. Harry will be pursued by the fierce lawyers of the other party (who have admitted to hacking phones, but not in this case) who will deploy every weapon to undermine his credibility.
It is likely that the Duke of Sussex will also have to answer questions about very personal facts, about his relationships, his girlfriends, his mother Diana and Meghan. “Harry shouldn’t be there, his position will only be damaged, whatever the outcome,” commented historian Sir Anthony Seldon.
And the result in case of victory is not even obvious, because the world of the media has profoundly changed since the events reported occurred. Twenty years ago, the Daily Mirror sold 2 million copies a day, today it is on average under 300,000, driven by social media.
Harry may also have to pay heaps of money (if he hasn’t signed a no win no fee deal with his legal team) and unleash the British papers, which are likely to pillory him even further if the verdict will not rule in his favor. But there are those who think that instead the almost heroic gesture of Harry, who left a life of privileges to fight against the establishment, could at least bring him the sympathy of the younger ones.
Meanwhile, London is getting ready. Today there was a forest of cameramen and photographers, tomorrow it will be worse, so much so that they have already begun cordoning off the surrounding area and streets. Harry, however, will be alone: because for the third time, in a few months, his wife Meghan did not accompany him on his trip to the United Kingdom and remained in California. A loneliness that will only rekindle the rumors that their marriage is already adrift.