Prince Harry became the first member of the British royal family to testify in court since 1891 on Tuesday. Meghan Markle’s husband appeared before the UK High Court today to take part in another phone hacking trial, this time, against the publisher of the Daily Mirror, whom Enrique sued for alleged hacking into his phone and other illegal activities.
According to the prince’s statement, the British tabloids meddled in his childhood, adolescence and adulthood and therefore he wonders “how much more blood will stain his fingers before someone can put an end to this madness?” In this battle against the media, the Duke of Sussex has also addressed “a rumor that my biological father was James Hewitt, a man with whom my mother had a relationship after I was born.”
As he has revealed, he himself believed the story. “At the time, when I was 18 and had lost my mother just six years earlier, stories like this felt very hurtful and very real to me,” to the point that it made him fear he would be kicked out of the British royal family. Hewitt, a riding instructor, had an affair with Lady Di for four years. They started in 1986, two years after Enrique’s birth, but their obvious resemblance sparked speculation.
In the same critical line towards the stories published about him, Enrique has uttered serious insults towards Paul Burrell, who was Diana of Wales’s butler and who has been in charge of revealing many of her secrets over the years. He has also accused the press of “horrific personal attacks” and “bullying” against him and Meghan Markle.
The prince arrived in the United Kingdom from California on Monday after giving the bell for missing the opening session of the same trial that took place that day. Many embarrassed his absence in court yesterday, since, apparently, Enrique would have left late on Sunday in the direction of London so as not to miss the birthday of his daughter Lilibet, which he celebrates on June 5. And you know how important birthdays are to the Sussexes.
The son of Carlos III has sworn to tell the truth about a Bible on the witness stand dressed in a navy blue suit and dark purple tie. The prince is expected to be in the UK for at least two more days, considerably longer than he spent when he traveled to London for his father’s coronation. It is not clear if he will see Carlos III this time; his brother, Prince William; or to another of the members of the Windsor, such as her cousin Princess Eugenia of York, who gave birth to her second child last Tuesday.
The news of this new trial, which adds to the multiple cases that the prince has open in the United Kingdom against tabloids, comes at a low time for the Sussexes. After the ambiguous persecution in New York, this Monday it was learned that a United States court will examine whether Prince Harry obtained his visa to enter the country irregularly.
The court will consider a lawsuit filed by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, against the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for information related to the Duke of Sussex’s visa approval process.
The Heritage Foundation argues that US law typically considers a person inadmissible to enter the country if there is evidence that they have used drugs in the past and Prince Harry’s memoirs leave no doubt about his drug use.
