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Prince Harry Says Thought Of Piers Morgan Listening To Diana's Private Messages Makes Him 'Physically Sick'
Prince Harry said the thought of Piers Morgan having had access to and listening to Princess Diana's private messages made him "physically sick" during his testimony in London's High Court in his legal case against Mirror Group Newspapers.
The Duke of Sussex—who shared he was emotionally scarred by British tabloids as a child—is suing for damages from the British tabloid publisher. Mirror Group publishes over 240 regional papers including The Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and Sunday People.
The Prince made history by becoming the first senior Royal to take the witness box in 130 years.
In the trial covering 33 stories published between 1995 and 2011, the Royal claimed journalists from those publishing titles obtained information through illegal tactics like phone-hacking, deception and using private investigators for unlawful activities.
“I would say their actions affected every area of my life,” Harry wrote in his witness statement.
\u201cPrince Harry has told the High Court the thought of 'Piers Morgan and his band of journalists earwigging' his mother's voicemails makes him feel sick.\n\nhttps://t.co/ejC1P8WiHQ\u201d— LBC (@LBC) 1686049104
He shared the trauma stemming from the articles he believed originated from the hacking.
According to the Prince the stories adversely affected his personal relationships.
“It created a huge amount of paranoia in my relationships."
"I would become immediately suspicious of anyone that was named in a story about me."
"I felt that I couldn’t trust anybody, which was an awful feeling for me especially at such a young age.”
\u201cPrince Harry endured a grueling cross examination after giving hours of testimony in a London courtroom. @MaxFosterCNN reports on Prince Harry's U.K. phone hacking lawsuit\u201d— The Lead CNN (@The Lead CNN) 1686091934
Also in his statement, Harry took aim at Piers Morgan.
Morgan was the editor for The Daily Mirror between 1995 and 2004–a period which included the time Harry's mother, Diana the Princess of Wales, was killed in a vehicular collision in Paris in 1997.
In the trial, Harry's lawyer David Sherborne presented letters to the court that Diana had written to English actor Morgan Barrymore about a "secret meeting" as claiming that as a child, Harry was impacted by the unlawful information-gathering techniques used by the press.
Sherborne mentioned that Morgan said he "heard rumors" of meetings between Diana and Barrymore, which the British presenter mentioned in his 2005 book The Insider.
Sherborne claimed the reason why Morgan may have heard about those meetings was because The Daily Mirror journalists would have listened to “private messages."
Harry said in his witness statement:
“The thought of Piers Morgan and his band of journalists earwigging into my mother’s private and sensitive messages … makes me feel physically sick and even more determined to hold those responsible, including Mr. Morgan, accountable for their vile and entirely unjustified behavior."
\u201c@LBC Whereas for the rest of us just the thought of Piers Morgan makes us feel sick\u201d— LBC (@LBC) 1686049104
\u201cI think Prince Harry is going to take down Piers Morgan. About time.\u201d— Daniela Nadj (@Daniela Nadj) 1686050365
\u201c@LBC Fingers crossed Piers Morgan ends up in jail this time, he really does believe his own hype.\u201d— LBC (@LBC) 1686049104
\u201c@LBC Sending solidarity to Harry and everyone who seeks the truth, transparency plus justice in the murky world of the media..\u201d— LBC (@LBC) 1686049104
\u201cGood job Prince Harry! Thank you for sticking with this fight with the gutter press to the bitter end. For too long they\u2019ve all paid their way out of responsibility for their criminal behavior.\n\nHere is Harry\u2019s full statement, with receipts:\n\nhttps://t.co/pdefqTMsd4\u201d— Ian \ud83c\udf0d (@Ian \ud83c\udf0d) 1686152998
In an interview with the BBC, Morgan–who previously called the Netflix trailer for the Harry & Meghan docuseries "vomit-inducing"–denied knowing of any phone-hacking incidents at The Daily Mirror.
He also said their methods were “completely wrong” and it was “lazy journalists being lazy.”
Twitter enjoyed watching Morgan trying to keep his cool while in the hot seat.
\u201cPiers Morgan preaching to everyone about journalism \n\n#PrinceHarry Go Get Him \n\nLook at the this \ud83d\udc47\ud83c\udffd\n\nhttps://t.co/NBpldPWy8S\u201d— Zuu SugaCane\ud83d\udc83\ud83c\udfff\u2764\ufe0f Brazen Hussy\ud83d\udc83\ud83c\udfff (@Zuu SugaCane\ud83d\udc83\ud83c\udfff\u2764\ufe0f Brazen Hussy\ud83d\udc83\ud83c\udfff) 1686075728
\u201cBREAKING: Piers Morgan reacts to Prince Harry hacking trial \n\nhttps://t.co/nTydNtA0Ds\n\n\ud83d\udcfa Sky 501, Virgin 602, Freeview 233 and YouTube\u201d— Sky News (@Sky News) 1686073065
\u201cHaha! \ud83e\udd23 As if Royal Stalker Piers Morgan isn\u2019t aware of what Prince Harry said in court today. I think Piers is feeling the heat. \n\u201d— India Willoughby (@India Willoughby) 1686074565
\u201cPiers Morgan spent years making segments and inviting guests to try to discredit whatever Prince Harry says. But not today when Harry is dragging him.\n\nHis lawyers probably told him to sit this one out.\u201d— Mukhtar (@Mukhtar) 1686078813
\u201cPiers Morgan says he is keeping a "dignified silence" over Prince Harry's court case.\n\nMorgan was editor of the Daily Mirror at the time Prince Harry accuses the newspaper of phone hacking.\n\nThe publisher denies all allegations and Mr Morgan has previously denied phone hacking.\u201d— Channel 4 News (@Channel 4 News) 1686141191
\u201c@LBC If nothing else comes from this it would be my wish that Morgan leaves the face of television and media.\u201d— LBC (@LBC) 1686049104
\u201c@SkyNews He seen it lol \ud83d\ude02 I am so glad Piers is being taken down by Prince Harry. Hope Harry wins his case.\u201d— Sky News (@Sky News) 1686073065
The Duke of Sussex also pointed to evidence disclosed by the Mirror Group Newspapers that its papers had made 289 payments to private investigators to gather information on him and his associates.
Harry wrote:
“I understand from my solicitors [that these] are huge numbers in the context of this litigation, especially considering that the defendant is known to have concealed and destroyed evidence of their wrongdoing on an industrial scale."
“I now realize that my acute paranoia of being constantly under surveillance was not misplaced after all.”
The Prince is also suing Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers, publisher of The Sun, and Associated Newspapers Limited–which owns Daily Mail, TheMail on Sunday, Metro, i newspaper, and New Scientist–for similar claims of phone hacking and other unlawful tactics to get information and invade Harry's privacy.