Prince Harry Breaks Silence on "Rift" with Royal Family

The Duke of Sussex is appearing in a new TV documentary about phone hacking airing tomorrow, July 25, but a bombshell teaser has already been shared with viewers. In a preview for the doc, we see Prince Harry say that his phone hacking case added to the "rift" with the royal family.

As a reminder, Prince Harry settled a phone-hacking lawsuit with the Mirror Group Newspapers (aka MGN) in February of this year. The 39-year-old royal accused the publication of using unlawful methods for their reporting. In December 2023, per The Guardian, a high court judge awarded the duke £140,600 in damages after ruling that the royal’s phone was hacked “to a modest extent” from 2003 to 2009.

Now, in a sit-down interview with ITV News's Rebecca Barry, the Duke is discussing his "mission to continue his fight to expose the illegal tactics of Britain's tabloid press." In a clip for the documentary, titled Tabloids on Trial, we see Barry ask if his determination to fight the tabloids "destroyed the relationship" with his family.

"Yeah, that's certainly a central piece to it," Prince Harry responds. "But, you know, that's a hard question to answer because anything I say about my family results in a torrent of abuse from the press."

"I've made it very clear that this is something that needs to be done. It would be nice if we, you know, did it as a family. I believe that, again, from a service standpoint and when you are in a public role, that these are the things that we should be doing for the greater good. But, you know, I'm doing this for my reasons."

Barry then asks: "What do you think of their decision not to fight in the way that you have?"

Prince Harry replies: "I think everything that's played out has shown people what the truth of the matter is. For me, the mission continues, but it has, yes. It's caused, as you say, part of a rift."

The Duke also discusses the role that the tabloids played in his mother, Princess Diana's, life. When asked whether the hacking made Harry paranoid, he replies: “I think paranoia is a very interesting word because yes, then it could be paranoia, but then when you’re vindicated it proves that you weren’t being paranoid. You know, same with my mother.”

“You know, there is evidence to suggest that she was being hacked in the mid-nineties, probably one of the first people to be hacked and yet still today, the press, the tabloid press very much enjoy painting her as being paranoid. But she wasn’t paranoid, she was absolutely right of what was happening to her. And she’s not around today to find out the truth.”