Prince Harry defends friends in London court

Prince Harry on Wednesday told London's Hight Court that that his "leaky" social circle was not the source of stories for the Daily Mail.

The Duke of Sussex and six other claimants including singer Elton John are suing the Mail's publisher Associated Newspapers for violations of their privacy from the early 1990s until the 2010s.

"For the avoidance of doubt, I am not friends with any of these journalists and I never have been," Harry said. He added: "My social circles were not leaky. I want to make that absolutely clear."

Associated, which also publishes the Mail on Sunday, has called the allegations "preposterous smears", saying their journalists had legitimate sources for information, including from the celebrities' friends and acquaintances.

Having become in 2023 the first royal in 130 years to give evidence in court during another of his lawsuits against the press, the younger son of King Charles repeatedly rejected claims from Associated's lawyer Antony White that its papers' journalists were close to his "leaky" social circle.

The prince's case centres on 14 articles his legal team says were the product of unlawful information gathering, including by hacking voicemail messages, bugging landlines and obtaining private information by deception, known as "blagging".

According to Reuters, Associated's lawyer White said the information in the articles was legitimately obtained, putting it to Harry that a former royal editor of the Mail on Sunday, Katie Nicholl, was part of his social group.

Harry replied: "If the sources were so good and she was hanging out with all my friends, then why was she using private investigators who have been connected to all the unlawful information gathering?"

He said he spoke to reporters and tried to be civil, but felt he had little choice despite feeling they had "commercialised my private life".

"These are people we were forced to work with, you had to have some kind of relationship with them ..., knowing who they are, knowing full well the kind of stories they have written about me," Harry said.

The prince smiled outside court, though his demeanour was serious as he entered the witness box, saying he had a "bad experience" being cross-examined in his successful lawsuit against Mirror Group Newspapers.

Clearly determined to get his point over, he was reminded by the judge, Matthew Nicklin, to focus on the lawyers' questions rather than argue his case.

"I wanted you to have an idea about what it's like living in this world," the prince told him.

Harry and the other claimants launched their legal action against the publisher of the influential Daily Mail in 2022, for the first time dragging Associated's titles into a phone-hacking scandal that had long dogged the British press.

The others involved are Elton John's husband David Furnish, actors Liz Hurley and Sadie Frost, anti-racism campaigner Doreen Lawrence and former lawmaker Simon Hughes, who will all give evidence during the nine-week trial.

Their lawyer David Sherborne said on Monday there was "clear, systematic and sustained use of unlawful information gathering" at Associated's titles.

For Harry, who has long blamed the press for the death of his mother Princess Diana in a Paris car crash in 1997 as her vehicle sped away from paparazzi, the trial is the last leg of his battle with tabloids, having won an apology from Rupert Murdoch's British newspaper arm last year.

In his witness statement, Harry said that "if the most influential newspaper company can successfully evade justice, then in my opinion the whole country is doomed".

He added that the lawsuit was a "public duty", saying that "when you're up against such a behemoth and intimidating media organisation, the courts are your last and only hope".