Prince Henry returned to the United Kingdom yesterday to appear in the trial that begins at the High Court in London on the lawsuit he filed against the publishing group of the tabloid Daily Mail – and The Mail on Sunday -, Associated Newspapers ( ANL), for violation of privacy and use of abusive methods to obtain information. Other celebrities such as Elton John, Elizabeth Hurley and Sadie Frost were added to the lawsuit.
At first it was planned that the Duke of Sussex would appear electronically from his home in Montecito (California) – where he has lived with his family since 2020 – but at the last moment he appeared in British courts for a view that began yesterday and will continue for four days. The judge will have to determine if the case regarding the alleged illegal collection of private information is filed or if it finally goes to trial.
In a statement from the group of lawyers for Prince Henry, Hamlims, it is assured that his client has taken this step because he has been the victim of “an abominable criminal activity”. Among the accusations is the hiring of investigators to place listening devices inside his house and in his car; paying police officers to obtain sensitive information; impersonation to obtain information in clinics and private treatment centers through deception and access to bank accounts through illicit means.
Enric, in his autobiographical book, En la sombra, relates that his phone was hacked up to three times and that aspects of his intimate life were blurred to damage his image, such as the photographs that were published of the costume party in which he appeared dressed as a Nazi army officer or the discussion that Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton had about the dresses of the little ladies shortly before their wedding. For his part, private investigator Gavin Burrows confirmed the plaintiff’s version on the BBC’s podcast Henry, Meghan and the media, asserting that he used unethical methods to gather information about Henry and his environment, such as analyzing his trash or phone records.
In 2021 his wife, Meghan Markle, received the symbolic amount of 1.20 euros for damages, along with an undisclosed sum that she donated to charity, after winning her case against ANL for publishing some letters she sent to her father, Thomas Markle.
The unexpected presence of the youngest son of King Charles III on the streets of London caused a great stir, but he was calm and smiling. The last time he was in the United Kingdom was in September 2022, when he went to the funeral of his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II. This new visit by the Duke of Sussex to the UK comes as it is still unknown whether Henry and Meghan will attend Charles III’s coronation on May 6. The couple have already received an invitation to the ceremony, but as published by The Times, they will not take part in the procession back to Buckingham from Westminster Abbey.
