prince harry will testify this Tuesday before the British Justice against Daily Mirror and the Sunday People whom he accuses of collecting information about him, in an allegedly illegal way, becoming the first member of the British royal family to testify before Justice in more than a century.
The local media expected that the youngest son of King Charles III, fifth in line to the British throne, would appear this Monday at the trial against Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), editor of the disputed publications. However, her lawyer, David Sherborne, said she would not take the stand that day, as she was celebrating her daughter’s second birthday in California and did not fly to the UK until Sunday night.
For that reason, Tuesday June 6will be the first statement by a British royal since Edward VII he did so in a libel suit in 1891, before he became monarch. On the other hand, the suspension of the hearing scheduled the day before perplexed many. Judge Timothy Fancourt declared himself “a bit surprised” by the announcement and the MGN lawyer, Andrew Green“deeply disturbed” by the absence of the Duke of Sussex, lamenting the “lost time”, according to the AFP news agency.
At the start of the trial on May 10, MGN acknowledged “some indications” of illegal information gathering, apologized and said that “such conduct will not be repeated.” In his opening arguments, Sherborne accused MGN of having used the services of “at least 30 different private detectives” to gather information illegally He had a “great interest” in “every aspect of his private life” because articles about the rebellious young prince “boosted sales,” the lawyer stressed.
It is not Harry’s first run-in with British Justice this year. The prince made a surprise appearance in a London court in March, in another lawsuit brought by several celebrities – including the singer Elton John– against the group Associated Newspapers Ltdtabloid newspaper editor Daily Mail. But in these preliminary hearings he did not testify in person, but presented his allegations in writing.
The Duke of Sussex had not returned to his country since his father’s coronation ceremony on May 6, which his wife, the American, did not attend. Meghan Markle, and after which he immediately returned to the United States. At the time, the couple cited the unbearable pressure from the media, and racist attacks against the actress, the first mixed-race woman to be part of the royal family, among their reasons for leaving the United Kingdom and settle in California as of 2020.
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