Prince Harry Evidence in London Phone Hacking Case: Live Updates

10:09 am ET, June 6, 2023

He questioned her complaints about the article reporting that Harry had become a godfather



Prince Harry is pictured in a courtroom sketch as he gives evidence in London on Tuesday.

Elizabeth Cook/PA/AP

Prince Harry objected to an April 20, 2003 article by the MGN-owned People newspaper titled “Mature Harry is a Godfather”. The article reported that Harry had been asked to be godfather to the son of Harry Legh-Borke (Harry’s former nanny, Dickie’s brother).

The article said that Legg-Borke’s wife, Iona, agreed that Harry was “old enough to cope” and that the prince’s father, Charles, was “preoccupied” with the idea and thought it would “make” him.

“It is true that I was asked to be a godfather, but again, I have no idea where these comments came from. This kind of private matter is not freely released into the public domain, and is usually only revealed at a christening if the press covers it,” Harry wrote in his witness statement.

During cross-examination, Green pointed to Harry to quote Legge-Bourke in the article about the Prince’s “accessibility and easy-going manner”.

On April 13, 2003, Green showed Harry a story on the same subject that had been published a week earlier in the Sunday Telegraph. An earlier article contained the same quotations from Legh-Borg.

Green suggested it showed “information that was in the public domain via the Sunday Telegraph” before appearing in the People article that Harry complained about.

“I see similarities between the two articles,” said Harry.

Harry said in his witness statement, “It is reasonable to assume that people had the means to hack Dickie and her husband and may have continued to do so. I now believe that this is how this article originated, or was a means of obtaining additional information for the article after it appeared elsewhere.”

But Green provided proof of an invoice showing a £200 payment to a freelancer called Chris Murphy. Green suggested that Murphy may have written the story to the Sunday Telegraph before sending it to the public.

Green asked Harry if this could be an indicator of “illegal information gathering”. The prince said he thought.

Harry was asked to clarify whether his witness statement was written by him or for him by his legal team.

“I wrote the whole report,” Harry replied.

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