Prince Harry and Hugh Grant will be featured in an ITV documentary focusing on ongoing legal battles and involvement in the phone hacking scandal titled “Tabloids On Trial.”
The Duke of Sussex alleges that he was targeted by journalists and private investigators working for News Group Newspapers (NGN) titles The Sun and the now-defunct News Of The World, which closed in 2011. In May, the prince’s lawyers were told by a London judge that he cannot expand the privacy lawsuit to include allegations against media mogul Rupert Murdoch and presenter Piers Morgan.
In 2011, news broke that some of Britain’s biggest stars and figures were allegedly victims of a scandal whereby the media’s top newspapers were tapping landlines and fitting properties with listening devices in the name of journalism. NGN has denied any illegal activity took place at The Sun.
But in December, Justice Timothy Fancourt ruled in Prince Harry’s favor against Mirror Group Newspapers in a 386-page decision handed down in the High Court; he said that phone hacking, which for the prince dated back to 2003, was “widespread and habitual” at the Daily Mirror, and that executives there had covered it up.
Grant, ex-soccer player Paul Gascoigne, and singer-songwriter Charlotte Church will also be featured in the documentary after claiming to have had their privacy violated by the tabloid press. Grant settled the illegal snooping case against NGN in April.
ITV News’s Rebecca Barry will sit down with Prince Harry – who has broken from royal tradition with the immense legal action – for his first major interview since the legal action commenced as the documentary “hears about his mission to continue his fight to expose the illegal tactics of Britain’s tabloid press, and explore what those in charge at Fleet Street really knew as this scandal unfolded.”
The program will air on ITV1 and ITVX on Thursday, July 25.
The Duke of Sussex has taken part in a documentary about phone hacking alongside fellow victims, including Hugh Grant. Prince Harry was interviewed about his crusade against the British press for the programme “Tabloids on Trial,” to be broadcast on ITV on July 25. It comes as he continues to pursue claims against the Associated Newspapers Limited, publisher of the Daily Mail and News Group Newspapers, the publisher of The Sun.
The interview will be the Duke’s first since his claim against Mirror Group Newspapers concluded in December, when he was awarded £140,600 in compensation after 15 of 33 articles were found to have been the product of phone hacking or unlawful information gathering. At the time, the Duke hailed himself a “dragon slayer” as he urged the Metropolitan Police to investigate. He said the victory justified his “slow and painful” fight for justice against the media in the courts and vowed to plough on.
“I’ve been told that slaying dragons will get you burned,” he said. “But in light of today’s victory and the importance of doing what is needed for a free and honest press, it is a worthwhile price to pay. The mission continues.” Seven months on, the Metropolitan Police is still considering the judge’s ruling and appears to have made no decision about whether or not to take action.
The documentary announcement comes after the High Court heard claims that the Duke had “deliberately destroyed” potential evidence relating to his claim against NGN and Mr. Justice Fancourt ordered him to explain himself. The judge said Prince Harry must personally disclose why and how drafts of his memoir, Spare, and messages exchanged with his ghostwriter were destroyed “well after” he sued the publisher in 2019.
He said it was “troubling” that the documents and conversations, which likely contained references to unlawful information gathering, had been deleted when the case was already well underway and said that efforts must be made to retrieve the exchanges with author, JR Moehringer.
ITV said: “The phone-hacking scandal exposed a murky tabloid world where stealing secrets was big business and privacy, meaningless. It’s been almost two decades since the story broke and subsequent legal actions have revealed that hacking was apparently just the start, with victims accusing some of Britain’s biggest newspapers of tapping landlines, fitting properties with listening devices and even burglaries to order – in the name of journalism – allegations that have been strongly denied.”
As well as the Duke, the documentary will also feature celebrities including Love Actually star Grant, singer Charlotte Church and former footballer Paul Gascoigne, as well as others catapulted into the public eye and who will speak about how their lives were “ripped apart by newspapers.”
In April, Grant revealed he had settled his claim against NGN for an “enormous sum” as he could not risk being saddled with an estimated £10m legal bill. He said he had been forced to do so because the rules of civil litigation meant that if he was awarded damages “even a penny less” than the settlement offer, he would be liable for the legal costs of both sides.
David Sherborne, the claimants’ barrister, admitted that Prince Harry faced the same predicament, suggesting that he too might be forced to settle before the case comes to trial in January 2025. Grant has been the public face of the Hacked Off campaign against the tabloid newspaper industry since it launched at the height of the phone hacking scandal in 2011. In 2012, he became director of a not-for-profit company set up by the campaign for press reform and also played a leading role at the Leveson Inquiry into press standards.
Prince Harry and Hugh Grant will feature in a bombshell ITV documentary exploring the phone hacking scandal, the broadcaster has announced. “Tabloids on Trial” will cover the two decades through which the scandal has spanned, with allegations first breaking in 2003. Alongside the Duke of Sussex and Mr. Grant, the programme will see appearances from Charlotte Church, Paul Gascoigne and other ‘people catapulted into the public eye’.
ITV has said the show will also include Harry’s first major interview since the end of his high-profile court case against the Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) in December. In a major success for the Duke, the presiding judge ruled that phone hacking became “widespread and habitual” at MGN titles in the late 1990s and that his phone was hacked “to a modest extent”, awarding £140,600 in damages.
“This documentary hears about his mission to continue his fight to expose the illegal tactics of Britain’s tabloid press and explores what those in charge at Fleet Street really knew as this scandal unfolded,” says ITV. The programme airs on July 25, coming as the Duke looks ahead to two further legal battles this, against both the publishers of The Daily Mail and The Sun.
The UK’s phone hacking scandal concerns the illegal gathering of information by tabloid newspapers from around 1995 to 2012. The issue first gained public attention in 2011, when the high-selling News of the World paper was forced to close amid hacking allegations. It came after reports emerged that journalists for the Rupert Murdoch-owned tabloid hacked into the phone of murdered school girl Milly Dowler, intercepting voicemails to use in their coverage.
News UK, Mr. Murdoch’s media empire which also publishes The Sun, has since settled over 1,600 phone-hacking claims. Reports indicate this has cost the company around £1 billion. Hundreds of civil cases have now been brought against News UK and competitors that publish The Mirror and The Daily Mail. Claimants have included many high-profile individuals, such as Prince Harry, Hugh Grant, Liz Hurley, Elton John, Paul Gascoigne and Steve Coogan.
The Duke of Sussex has been particularly active, entering a number of legal battles with varying success since 2019. Giving evidence at his trial against The Mirror publisher, he revealed how “media intrusion” had affected his life, and influenced his decision to step back from royal duties. “As a child growing up, in teenage years, I was under press invasion for most of my life, up until this day,” he told the court. He later added: “Some of the editors and journalists that are responsible for causing a lot of pain, upset and in some cases, speaking personally, death.”
Prince Harry was subsequently successful in his claim against the publisher, but has two other civil cases ongoing. He is one of several claimants in cases against both publishers of The Daily Mail and The Sun, alleging unlawful information gathering. Legal proceedings for both are expected to take place later this year.
Source: THR, ITV, PA
