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Prince Harry made history on Tuesday as he became the first senior member of the royal family to give evidence in open court in over 130 years as part of his legal battle against a British tabloid publisher accused of phone hacking and other illegal information-gathering activities. And it's partially thanks to singer Elton John.
Harry is currently suing three major publishers in the United Kingdom over allegations of unlawful information gathering: Associated Newspapers Limited, publishers of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday; News Group Newspapers, publishers of The Sun and now-defunct News of The World; and Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), publishers of the Daily Mirror and Sunday People.
The MGN lawsuit is the first of these to have reached a trial phase with Harry's case being heard among a sample of other claimants before a judge at London's Royal Courts of Justice.
The prince first announced he was suing the publisher over stories written about his private life between 1996 and 2011 in 2019, something he revealed during his witness testimony on Wednesday, was influenced by a holiday in the South of France with celebrity pal, Elton John.
When asked when he first approached lawyers, led by media specialist barrister David Sherborne, about filing his lawsuit, the prince said that he didn't seek them out, but that "I bumped into Mr. Sherborne in France."
He told the court, per the Daily Telegraph: "It's in my book."
Prince Harry, Elton John, Phone Hacking and 'Spare'
In January, Prince Harry published his bombshell memoir, Spare, which broke records in its opening week to become the fastest-selling non-fiction book of all time.
Among the subjects discussed in the book is a private trip he took with Meghan Markle in 2019 to the South of France at the invitation of a family friend, singer Elton John and his husband, David Furnish.
The vacation provided a respite from the media criticism faced by the couple in Britain at the time, and Harry wrote: "We spent long healing moments gazing out at the azure sea, and it felt decadent, not just because of the luxurious setting. Freedom of any kind, in any measure, had come to feel like scandalous luxury. To be out of the fishbowl for even an afternoon felt like day release from prison."
The prince recounted how the couple spent time with Elton and Furnish and their children, who bonded with Prince Archie who wasn't yet a year old. Though the royal remembers the freedom and family time spent together fondly, he also wrote that there was a potentially tense altercation when Elton revealed he had sold serialization rights to his memoir to the Daily Mail.
After voicing objections over how the paper reported on the singer, his family and the prince, Harry told readers that he "didn't push it" because he "didn't want to ruin the holiday."
Later in Spare, Harry recounted the circumstances that surrounded his thwarted attempts to hold the media responsible for publishing negative and allegedly false stories about himself and his wife.
During the couple's 2019 tour of South Africa, it was announced that Harry and Meghan had instructed lawyers outside of Buckingham Palace to sue tabloid publishers—Meghan over a breach of privacy when the Daily Mail published contents of a private letter she sent to her father, and Harry over phone hacking against MGN and News Group Newspapers.
"We both felt a bit more confident, therefore, a bit more courageous," he wrote of his and Meghan's mindsets during the tour. "Just days before our return home, when we strapped on the battle armor and announced that we were suing three of the four British tabloids (including the one that printed Meg's letter to her father) over their disgraceful conduct, and over their longstanding practice of hacking into people's phones."
He then told readers how he had first considered bringing his legal action.
"It was partially down to Elton and David," he wrote. "At the end of our recent visit they'd introduced us to a barrister, an acquaintance of theirs, a lovely fellow who knew more about the phone-hacking scandal than anyone I'd ever met.
"He'd shared with me his expertise, plus loads of open-court evidence, and when I told him I wished there was something I could do with it, when I complained that we'd been blocked at every turn by the Palace, he offered a breathtakingly elegant
work-around: 'Why not hire your own lawyer?'"
The "lovely fellow" is presumed to be Sherborne, who has worked with the prince ever since and who represented him in court during his MGN trial.
Harry wrote that it had "never occurred" to him to sue on his own, having been "conditioned to do as I was told."
During his court testimony on Tuesday and Wednesday, the prince discussed the mental anguish caused by the reports published by MGN titles which he claimed were obtained illegally, including personal information about his relationships with past girlfriends and family members like Prince William and Princess Diana.
The trial is scheduled to last two more weeks with a judgment expected at a later date.
James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek's royal reporter based in London. You can find him on Twitter at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.
Do you have a question about King Charles III, William and Kate, Meghan and Harry, or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email royals@newsweek.com. We'd love to hear from you.
About the writer
James Crawford-Smith is a Newsweek Royal Reporter, based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on the British royal family ... Read more