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On Tuesday, Harry answered questions in a measured, almost hushed tone. He appeared nervous at first, and was at one point asked to raise his voice.
But he brought to court an overriding argument that he has previously made on television programs and in podcast interviews: that the media’s intrusion and tactics caused him significant distress and wrecked some of his closest relationships.
The duke is suing a big British newspaper group, Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), alleging the publisher’s journalists hacked his phone and used other illicit means to gather information about his life between 1996 and 2009.
He faced forensic and detailed questioning from MGN’s lawyer, Andrew Green, who probed him on the specifics of his claims and occasionally left him scrambling to recall sections of his written statement or find pieces of evidence.
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But after a nervous start that exposed gaps in Harry’s knowledge regarding the minutiae of the case, the prince increasingly asserted himself – clashing at times with the publisher’s lawyer as they dissected reams of press coverage about his childhood, his school years and his relationships.
“Some editors and journalists do have blood on their hands” for the distress caused to him, Harry told the court at one point – and “perhaps, inadvertently death,” he added, in reference to his mother, Princess Diana.
The sight of a senior royal subjected to a tiring, meticulous interrogation was exceedingly rare.
It last happened in 1891, when a game of baccarat went awry and landed Harry’s great great great grandfather, the future King Edward VII, on the stand.
