Prince Harry claims Royal family would be ‘laughing stock’ without phone hacking case

Britain's Prince Harry leaves the Royal Courts Of Justice. Photo / AP

The Duke of Sussex claimed the Royal family would become a “laughing stock” if he was not allowed to launch a phone hacking case against the publisher of The Sun.

Prince Harry told Sally Osman, the then royal director of communications, that the late Queen “fully supported” him in his campaign.

The exchanges were revealed during a three-day preliminary High Court hearing at which the Duke’s lawyers are challenging an attempt by News Group Newspapers (NGN) to “strike out” his phone hacking claim on the grounds that it was brought too late.

Prince Harry has alleged that there was a “secret agreement” between the palace and NGN that would delay seeking a resolution until other court cases were resolved.

In emails submitted to the court on Thursday, it was also claimed the late Queen was aware that The Sun had been spying on her family and their friends.

In his witness statement, the Duke said he was kept in the dark by the palace about the extent of phone hacking. He claimed he was not shown any evidence relating to his own intercepted voicemails when first told about it in 2012.

He said it was the approach of his wedding to Meghan Markle in May 2018 that spurred him to seek a resolution against NGN because he could not abide the thought of the “main culprits” being amongst the congregation.

A 2017 email from the palace, submitted to the court by his legal team, appears to show royal staff attempting to put the phone hacking claims to rest.

It was time to “draw a line” under the dispute, Osman wrote to Robert Thomson, the News Corp chief executive.

“The fact that we can have this conversation, with the Queen’s full authority and knowledge of the scale and effect of hacking and surveillance on her family, their staff, associates, friends and family, is important with a view to resolution in the near future,” she added.

In an email early the following year, however, Osman told Thomson of “an increasing sense of frustration here at the lack of response or willingness to engage in finding a resolution”.

Britain's Prince Harry waves to the media as he leaves the Royal Courts of Justice in London. Photo / AP

Prince Harry had complained to Osman that the publisher appeared to be doing “whatever it could” to prevent legal action. An email sent to her by the Duke in February 2018 read: “The institution is supposed to be leading on this and is being made to look ineffective and weak.

“I can’t begin to tell you what it will say about the institution if this isn’t resolved before the baby’s arrival and wedding. If it isn’t resolved should the Queen be allowing them into Windsor on May 19th?

“There needs to be an ultimatum otherwise this institution and everything it stands for becomes a laughing stock.”

In another message, sent a month later, he wrote: “With HM fully supporting this I don’t think I need to remind anyone how important it is to resolve this before the end of April. Putting her in the position of having to invite these people into Windsor Castle without resolution is not an option.”

The Duke ultimately filed his lawsuit against NGN in 2019. The case is one of four he is pursuing against tabloids, accusing them of widespread unlawful activity and his family of colluding with them.

He is understood to have followed proceedings at the High Court this week “intently” via video link from California and is preparing to return to the UK for his father’s Coronation on May 6.

Britain's King Charles III, from bottom left, Camilla, the Queen Consort, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex and Prince Harry. Photo / AP

Hugh Grant, the 62-year-old actor who is also launching a similar claim against NGN, appeared in court with his wife, Anna Eberstein, on Thursday.

Grant has claimed private investigators working on behalf of NGN carried out “burglaries to order”.

In a witness statement, he said: “My claim concerns unlawful acts committed by The Sun, including burglaries to order, the breaking and entering of private property in order to obtain private information through bugging, landline tapping, phone hacking, and the use of private investigators to do all these and other illegal things against me.”

Justice Fancourt will give a ruling on whether Grant’s and the Duke’s claims will progress to a trial, due to be heard in January next year, at a later date.