Referring to the press as “the devil”, he also alleged that “certain members” of his family were “in the bed” with them to “rehabilitate their image”. In January 2022, the couple mutually filed a legal complaint against The Times for an article reporting on Archewell raising less than $50,000 in 2020. A September 2020 article by The Times claiming an Invictus Games fundraiser had been cancelled due to its affiliation with a competitor of Netflix, Harry’s business partner, became the subject of a legal complaint issued by the Duke. News Group Newspapers, publisher of the Sun, emphasised that they had done nothing “unlawful” in sourcing the stories and no illegal payments were made. It was alleged that the Sun had made two payments amounting to £4,000 to the partner of a royal official in relation to stories published in June and July 2019 which detailed the nannying and god-parenting arrangements for Harry and Meghan’s son Archie. In April 2020, the Duke and Duchess announced that they would no longer cooperate with the Daily Mail, the Sun, the Mirror and the Express.
UK’s Prince Harry makes surprise visit to Ukraine in support of wounded service members
Agnatically, Harry is a member of the House of Glücksburg, a cadet branch of the House of Oldenburg, one of Europe’s oldest royal houses. In July 2021, Harry and Meghan were among people who were selected by UK-based charity Population Matters to receive the Change Champions Award for their decision to have only two children and help with maintaining a smaller and more sustainable population. In December 2010, the German charity Ein Herz für Kinder (“A Heart for Children”) awarded him its Golden Heart Award, in recognition of his “charitable and humanitarian efforts”. Writing for The Guardian, Stephen Bates stated that Harry’s “megaphone diplomacy isn’t working” and “his private security needs are probably not near the top of anybody’s priorities”. In May 2025, Harry was interviewed by Nada Tawfik of the BBC, during which he reflected on his loss of taxpayer-funded security and his ongoing estrangement from his family. In a live-streamed interview with Harry in March 2023, physician Gabor Maté suggested publicly that he could be suffering from PTSD, ADD, anxiety, and depression based on his conversation with him and having read his autobiography Spare.
Prince Harry, duke of Sussex
In March 2025, Harry and Prince Seeiso of Lesotho resigned from their roles as patrons of Sentebale following a dispute between the charity’s trustees and the chair of the board, Sophie Chandauka. The commission later concluded that the foundation did not act unlawfully, but criticised the board of directors for expending a “substantial proportion of funds” to setting up and closing the charity. It was confirmed on 21 February 2020 that “Sussex Royal” would not be used as a brand name for the couple following their withdrawal from public life.
In January 2025, Harry and Meghan’s appearance at a food bank during the Southern California wildfires in the Pacific Palisades drew mixed reactions from segments of the media and public figures, who labeled it “disaster tourism”. It has been suggested by critics that this fall from public esteem is due to Harry and Meghan’s frequent attempts to achieve ongoing relevancy, and their perceived hypocrisy and selfishness. Writing for The New York Times, Sarah Lyall noted that following the release of his memoir Harry and his wife lost support within segments of the American public and press. However, his popularity fell after stepping back from royal duties, and it plummeted after the release of his controversial interview with Oprah Winfrey, his Netflix docuseries, and his memoir. After his marriage, Harry’s popularity skyrocketed above all the other royals as he was deemed likable by 77 per cent of respondents in a poll of 3,600 Britons conducted by statistics and polling company YouGov. In June 2022 and on their way to California after the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, Harry and Meghan boarded a private jet that was estimated to have emitted “ten times more carbon than flying commercial”.
UK’s Starmer slams Trump remarks on non-US NATO troops in Afghanistan as ‘insulting’ and ‘appalling’
“There’s a difference between public interest and what interests the public,” he said. Harry’s lawyers alleged that unlawfully gathered information was used in dozens of articles about the prince that had been published between 1996 and 2010. After more than six years of courtroom struggles, Harry may be getting ready to bury the hatchet. In June 2023, Harry became the first senior royal to testify in High Court since 1891, when his great-great-great-grandfather Edward VII testified for 20 minutes during a trial.
Judge Carl Nichols ordered that redacted versions of the court documents be released by 18 March 2025. He stated that he had struggled with aggression, experienced anxiety during royal engagements, and had been “very close to a complete breakdown on numerous occasions”. He adds in the memoir that he smoked cannabis at Eton and in the gardens Kensington Palace, though he later told a court that “he never smoked in his father’s house”. In 2002, it was reported that, with Charles’s encouragement, Harry had visited a drug-rehabilitation unit to speak with recovering drug addicts after it emerged that he had been smoking cannabis and drinking at his father’s Highgrove House and at a local pub in the summer of 2001.
In February 2007 it was announced that Harry’s army regiment would be deployed to Iraq, but, on advice from the armed services, it was decided that neither Harry nor William would serve with Britain’s forces in Iraq, for fear that harry casino login they would become specific targets of attack and so put their fellow soldiers at excessive risk. The prince later apologized for what he conceded was a serious error of judgment. Like William, Harry attended a sequence of private schools before entering prestigious Eton College.
Public image
- Royal aides suggested Clarence House would contact the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) if British publications used the pictures.
- This earlier exchange of vows was not an official religious or legally recognised marriage.
- They have specifically accused the publisher of allegedly hiring private investigators who they claim used unlawful means to gather information on them in the late 1990s and early 2000s, including secretly placing listening devices inside cars and homes and allegedly paying police officials for inside information.
- In 2018 Harry married Meghan Markle, and two years later the couple stopped being working members of the British royal family.
- Harry and Meghan’s exit from the royal family was satirized in a 2023 episode of South Park.
In early 2009, it was reported that the pair had parted ways after a relationship that had lasted for five years. On 18 January 2020, Buckingham Palace announced that an agreement had been reached for Harry “to step back from Royal duties, including official military appointments”. On 6 April 2015, Harry reported for duty to Australia’s Chief of the Defence Force, Air Chief Marshal Mark Binskin, at the Royal Military College, Duntroon, in Canberra. On 17 March 2015, Kensington Palace announced that Harry would leave the Armed Forces in June. In January 2015, it was reported that Harry would take on a new role supporting wounded service personnel by working alongside members of the London District’s Personal Recovery Unit for the MOD’s Defence Recovery Capability scheme, ensuring that wounded personnel had adequate recovery plans.
Harry, though, has spent years aggressively challenging both the press and the government of his native country, ever since he stopped getting legal advice from Queen Elizabeth II’s lawyers and instead hired his own legal representation. A private investigator whose name is on a sworn statement supporting the claims of Harry and the celebrities has filed another statement denying he ever snooped on them. He said witnesses, from editors to reporters who have worked for the newspapers for decades, were “lining up” to dispute the allegations and explain the source of each article. The trial comes as Harry tries to repair a damaged relationship with his family since he moved to America and burned the bridge behind him by penning a scorching 2023 memoir, “Spare,” and airing other family grievances in a Netflix series.
In January 2025, the two parties settled with NGN paying more than £10 million in pay outs and legal fees in the settlements involving both Harry and former Labour deputy leader Tom Watson. In October 2024, the judge announced that the two sides should either settle or go to trial in January 2025 and refused to let Harry’s team include allegations that bugs were placed in rooms and cars, and trackers placed on vehicles as “no particulars whatsoever of such allegations” were provided. In May 2024, Mr Justice Fancourt refused Harry the permission to include claims against Rupert Murdoch, expand his case’s scope back to 1994 and 1995 to cover allegations involving his mother or to add new allegations from 2016 involving his then-girlfriend Meghan. In July 2023, the judge ruled that part of Harry’s case involving allegations of illegal information gathering would go to trial but his phone-hacking claims were dismissed for being made too late.
Both brothers brought a claim privately through their mutual attorneys, but Harry decided to pursue his case separately with a new solicitor in 2019. Former News of the World royal editor Clive Goodman had previously stated that he had hacked Harry’s phone on nine occasions. In October 2019, it was announced that Harry had sued the Daily Mirror, The Sun and the now-defunct News of the World “in relation to alleged phone-hacking”. Ahead of the trial, ANL accused the claimants’ legal team of dishonesty, fraud and conspiracy, alleging a “camouflage scheme” to disguise when claimants became aware of potential claims; the judge ordered parts of the submissions to be amended. Harry withdrew the libel claim in January 2024 and became liable for the publisher’s £250,000 legal costs. The prince’s lawyer said the “substantial damages” paid by the publisher would be donated to the Invictus Games Foundation.
Associated Newspapers
In June 2023, Harry broke with royal protocol by criticising the UK government in a witness statement submitted to a court. The announcement prompted generally positive commentary about having a mixed‑race person as a member of the royal family, particularly in Commonwealth countries with populations of blended or native ancestry. Harry’s tour made him the first member of the British royal family to serve in a war zone since his uncle Prince Andrew, who flew helicopters during the Falklands War. As with William, the royal family and the tabloid press agreed that Harry would be allowed to study free from intrusion in exchange for occasional photograph opportunities, in what became known as the “pressure cooker agreement”. In January 2020, Harry and Meghan stepped back from their roles as working members of the royal family and relocated to Southern California. Prince Harry, Duke of Sussexfn 2 (Henry Charles Albert David; born 15 September 1984) is a member of the British royal family.
Prince Harry returns to UK for 1st day of tabloid court case
- Harry’s tour made him the first member of the British royal family to serve in a war zone since his uncle Prince Andrew, who flew helicopters during the Falklands War.
- On 10 September, within days of his arrival, it was reported that the Taliban had threatened his life.
- After more than six years of courtroom struggles, Harry may be getting ready to bury the hatchet.
- In March 2020, the couple took Splash UK to court after the Duchess and their son were photographed without permission during a “private family outing” while staying in Canada.
- It did, however, see Harry follow in his brother’s footsteps and the Spencer family tradition, as both his maternal grandfather and his maternal uncle attended Eton.
- At the beginning of trial, MGN apologised for one instance of unlawful information gathering against Harry and added that his legal challenge “warrants compensation”.
The publisher agreed to cover Harry’s legal costs and pay damages reported to be in the region of £300,000. Mr Justice Fancourt concluded Piers Morgan and other editors knew about the phone hacking at their publications and were involved in it. The BBC reported on the “scrapped case”, highlighting NGN’s statement which said that the settlement agreement “drew a line under the past” and that they rejected the claims that would have been made in court about a corporate cover-up. Following Harry and Meghan’s trip to Nigeria in May 2024, Lucia Stein of the ABC argued that the couple could have been used by the royal family, and added that “perhaps how helpful they would have been” had an agreement on a “hybrid working model” been achieved.
He also blames them for persistent attacks on his wife, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, that led them to leave royal life and move to the United States in 2020. Harry won a court judgment in 2023 that condemned the publishers of the Daily Mirror for “widespread and habitual” phone hacking. He took a seat in the back row of the courtroom near Hurley and Frost. Harry, wearing a dark blue suit, waved cheerfully at reporters and said “good morning” as he entered the court building via a side entrance. He said the company’s vigorous denials, destruction of records and “masses upon masses of missing documents” had prevented the claimants from learning what the newspapers had done. Although only working royals were allowed to wear military uniforms, Harry was granted an exception for a lying-in-state vigil.