Global Courant
Prince Harry admitted that an old tabloid rumor speculating that King Charles III was not his biological father made him “harmful” over the years.
The Duke of Sussex is suing the publisher of the Daily Mirror for using illegal techniques “on an industrial scale” to score front-page news about his life. On Tuesday, the British royal family became the first senior member to testify in more than a century. The 38-year-old returned to London’s High Court on Wednesday for a second day of cross-examination.
The case against Mirror Group is the first of the Prince’s several lawsuits against the media to go to trial. It is one of three publishers he alleged to have unlawfully spied on for scoops on the royal family.
In a written statement released Tuesday, the 38-year-old cited the 2002 article “Plot to Rob the DNA of Harry,” which speculated that the royal family was the child of the late Princess Diana and her driving instructor James Hewitt.
Prince Harry, left, admitted that paternity rumors about his late mother James Hewitt’s riding instructor, right, have been painful over the years. (Getty Images)
“Numerous newspapers had reported a rumor that my biological father was James Hewitt, a man my mother had a relationship with after I was born,” Harry wrote. “At the time of this article and similar articles I was actually unaware that my mother had not met Major Hewitt until after I was born. This timeline is something I did not learn about until about 2014, although I now understand this was common knowledge among the journalists of the defendant.”
According to Harry, the paternity rumor was continued in several articles.
“At the time, when I was 18 years old and had lost my mother just six years earlier, stories like this felt very damaging and very real to me,” Harry admitted. “They were hurtful, mean and cruel. I was always left questioning the motives behind the stories. Were the newspapers bent on questioning the public so that I could be expelled from the royal family?”
Harry accused the author of the article, Dean Rousewell, of having a history of using “unlawful information-gathering techniques”. According to the Prince, Rousewell “reported a plot to steal a sample of my DNA to test my parentage.”
“Of particular interest to me in this article are the comments of the ‘senior royal source’, who gave details of how the alleged plot would have been carried out and, more importantly, that my DNA would be ‘sold abroad’.” Harry wrote.
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Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, arrives to testify on day two of the Mirror Group Phone hacking trial at the Rolls Building, High Court on June 7, 2023 in London. (Kate Green/Getty Images)
“I’m not sure where or who these comments are coming from because they feel like a huge security risk, basically putting a price on my DNA for anyone who could get it,” he continued. “I don’t believe these are details anyone inside the palace would have shared given the measures put in place for the safety of all members of the royal family.”
It is not the first time Harry has spoken out about the rumor.
In his memoirs, Prince Harry claimed that King Charles once joked about the rumor. (PAUL ELLIS/POOL/AFP)
In his memoir “Spare,” which was published in January this year, Harry described how his father, 74, once made “sadistic” jokes about the painful gossip. It was no laughing matter for Harry.
“Dad loved storytelling, and this was one of the best in his repertoire,” Harry wrote. “He would always end with a burst of philosophizing… ‘Who knows if I’m really the Prince of Wales? Who knows if I’m even your real father?'”
James Hewitt previously claimed he spoke of an alleged five-year affair with Diana, Princess of Wales because she told him to. (Fiona Hanson – PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images)
“He laughed and laughed, although it was a remarkably unfunny joke given the rumor circulating at the time that my real father was one of Mum’s former lovers: Major James Hewitt,” Harry recalled. “One cause of this rumor was Major Hewitt’s flaming red hair, but another cause was sadism.”
“(The press) couldn’t get enough of this ‘joke’ for some reason,” Harry reflected. “Maybe it made them feel better about their lives that the life of a young prince was laughable.”
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Princess Diana died in 1997. She was 36. (Terry Fincher/Princess Diana Archive/Getty Images)
In 2002, Hewitt himself addressed the gossip.
“I’ve been aware for some time that the issue of Harry’s paternity is an important talking point,” Hewitt said, as quoted by People magazine. “There’s really no way I’m Harry’s father. I can understand the interest, but Harry walked out when my relationship with Diana started.”
James Hewitt is a controversial figure in the UK after writing about his relationship with the late Princess Diana. (Evan Agostini/liaison)
The outlet noted that Hewitt and Diana reportedly only met in 1986. Harry was born in 1984.
“Granted, the red hair looks like mine and people say we look alike,” Hewitt said. “Looking at the pictures, I’d say he’s a much more handsome guy than I ever was.”
He addressed the speculation again in 2017 during an appearance on an Australian TV show. When asked if he could be Harry’s father, Hewitt insisted, “No, I’m not.”
“It sells paper,” Hewitt said of the rumor. “It’s worse for (Harry), probably, poor fellow.”
Prince Harry is one of several plaintiffs in a lawsuit against Mirror Group Newspapers over allegations of unlawful information gathering in previous decades. (Kate Green/Getty Images)
During his appearance on the witness stand on Tuesday, Harry told Mirror Group Newspapers lawyer Andrew Green that he had “experienced hostility from the press since I was born”. The prince accused the tabloids of “playing a destructive role in my childhood”.
Green apologized for the only instance that Mirror Group has admitted to hiring a private investigator to dig up dirt on Harry, which was not among the claims he has made. Mirror Group does not deny or admit to his other allegations. Green acknowledged that the Duke had “lived a life of intruding into the life of the tabloids”, and then sympathetically set about dismantling his case.
Transported back in time to his 12th birthday and on through early adulthood, Harry was confronted by articles he had complained about and asked to identify the source of misconduct by the Mirror Group journalists. Harry had to admit almost immediately that he wasn’t sure he had read the 33 specific articles about him when they were published.
“Is it realistic, when you have been the subject of so much interference in the press… both nationally and internationally, to attribute specific distress to a particular article from 20 years ago, which you may not have seen at the time? ” Green asked.
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Court artist sketch by Elizabeth Cook of the Duke of Sussex, left, with his counsel David Sherborne, right, testifying at the Rolls Buildings in central London, with Mr Justice Fancourt watching, during the phone hacking trial of Mirror Group Newspapers. (Elizabeth Cook/PA via Alamy)
“It’s not a specific article, it’s all articles,” Harry replied. “Each article has brought me grief.”
He suggested that the articles were the result of phone hacking or some other unlawful information-gathering method that “desperate journalists” relied on for news of his life. Harry has said the royal family has avoided legal entanglements to avoid being put on the witness stand.
According to Harry, the articles in question caused him to become depressed and paranoid, suspicious of friends, whom he feared were passing information to the media. His circle of friends shrank, relationships fell apart, and he constantly felt in the gaze of the journalists who shaped the story of his life.
“I really feel that in every relationship I’ve ever had – be it with friends, girlfriends, family or the military – there has always been a third party involved, which is the tabloid press,” Harry said in his testimony. .
Prince Harry reflected on the paternity rumors involving James Hewitt in his memoir ‘Spare’. (Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket)
The case dates from 1996 to 2011.
His lawyer, David Sherborne, who is covering the prince’s case, said on Monday that British newspapers have used deceit since Harry’s childhood to cover every facet of his life – from school injuries to experimenting with marijuana and cocaine, to ups and downs with girlfriends.
“Nothing was sacred or forbidden,” the lawyer said.
Green said on Monday there was “simply no evidence to support the finding that the Duke of Sussex had been hacked, let alone on a customary basis”.
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The Duke and Duchess of Sussex live in California with their two young children. (Getty Images)
Mirror Group paid more than 100 million pounds ($125 million) in 2015 to settle hundreds of illegal information-gathering claims and apologized to victims of phone hacks.
Harry has described his anger towards the British press in “Spare”. He has long blamed the paparazzi for the 1997 car accident that killed his mother. He also said interference from the British press, including reportedly racist articles, led him and his wife to flee the country.
Meghan Markle, a former American actress, became the Duchess of Sussex when she married the British Prince in 2018. In 2020, the couple announced they were stepping back as senior royals. They now live in California with their two young children.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Stephanie Nolasco covers entertainment at Foxnews.com.
