Prince Harry denies claim ‘leaky social circle’ fed stories to journalists

Prince Harry has insisted he did not have a “leaky” social circle that gave stories about him to journalists at the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday, as he told the high court the publisher of the titles had “an obsession” with surveilling him.Giving evidence in the high court against Associated Newspapers Led (ANL), the Duke of Sussex rejected the publisher’s claims that its journalists had secured information about him from his friends and acquaintances, rather than through unlawful means.In exchanges with ANL’s lead barrister Antony White, the duke said it had been impossible to complain about some of the stories, which he now believes came from the use of unlawful information gathering.He said he was prevented from complaining by “the institution I was in”, referring to the royal family. “If you complain, they [the press] double down on you, in my experience,” he said.“My social circles were not leaky, I want to make that absolutely clear,” he said, adding that the moment he became suspicious about someone, he had to cut them off.“When you are in a situation like this, the moment something private is out, your circle of trust and knowledge decreases over time,” he said. “The stuff in these articles is not the kind of stuff I would talk about openly.”Prince Harry is making the claim against ANL along with six other high-profile figures, who have accused the publisher of using unlawful techniques.They include Doreen Lawrence, the mother of Stephen Lawrence, who was killed in a racist murder more than 30 years ago. Elton John and his husband, David Furnish, the actors Elizabeth Hurley and Sadie Frost, and the former Liberal Democrat MP Simon Hughes are also part of the action.In a written witness statement submitted to the court, Harry alleged the techniques included “the hacking of my voicemails, landline tapping, blagging, obtaining itemised phone bills, hardwire tapping, and obtaining private flight information for my former girlfriend, Chelsy Davy, among other criminal methods, all of which was deliberately undertaken with the purpose of publishing articles about me”.In his statement, he accused the publisher of having “a campaign, an obsession of having every aspect of my life under surveillance so they could get the run on their competitors and drive me paranoid beyond belief, isolating me, and probably wanting to drive me to drugs and drinking to sell more of their papers”.“I am determined to hold Associated accountable, for everyone’s sake,” his written submission said.“I am therefore committed to pursuing this claim because I believe it is in the public’s interest. If the defendant, the owner of various national newspapers, including The Daily Mail which, by its own definition, is the most influential and popular newspaper in the UK, can evade justice without there being a trial of my claims, then what does that say about the industry as a whole and the consequences for our great country.”Associated Newspapers has denied any wrongdoing, previously describing the claims as “lurid” and “preposterous”.White suggested to Harry that journalists that had written some of the 14 articles that he was complaining about had sources in his social circle and could have secured information legitimately.White said Katie Nicholl, a former Mail on Sunday royal correspondent, who wrote several of the stories, had gone to the same social events and nightclubs. He suggested he had a good relationship with Rebecca English, the Daily Mail’s royal editor, and that he was at one point Facebook friends with a third journalist.“I did not have a good relationship with Ms English,” the duke said. “Quite the opposite.”“For the avoidance of doubt, I’m not friends with any of these journalists and never have been,” he added.White has previously told the court the seven claimants were “clutching at straws in the wind and seeking to bind them together”, by asking the court to equate the payment of a private investigator with proof that unlawful means were being used to secure stories.The publisher said stories were obtained “entirely legitimately from information provided by contacts of the journalists responsible, including individuals in the Duke of Sussex’s social circle, press officers and publicists, freelance journalists, photographers and prior reports”.White has said the duke’s social circle “was and was known to be a good source of leaks or disclosure of information to the media about what he got up to in his private life”.In his statement, Harry said he learned of alleged unlawful activity by the Daily Mail publisher after he had taken action against the publishers of the Daily Mirror and The Sun.The trial continues.