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Prince Harry said that tabloid stories created an "alternative and distorted version of me" that could have prompted a stranger to stab him, even though he was among the most popular royals at the time.
The Duke of Sussex described the impact of press intrusion on his life in a 27,000-word witness statement for his phone-hacking lawsuit against Mirror Group Newspapers at the High Court in London.
While Harry's words may be an accurate reflection of how he felt at the time, polling data indicates he was hugely popular with the British public during his time as a working royal, aside from what any U.K. newspapers may have said about him.
Harry's witness statement read: "It even got to the stage where the tabloids would routinely publish articles about me that were often wrong but interspersed with snippets of truth, which I now think were most likely gleaned from voicemail interception and/or unlawful information gathering."
He continued: "This created an alternative and distorted version of me and my life to the general public—being those people that I had to serve and interact with as part of my role in the Royal Family—to the point where any one of the thousands of people that I met or was introduced to on any given day could easily have gone 'you know what, you're an idiot. I've read all the stories about you and now I'm going to stab you.'
"This extended to every new place that I went to whether it be a classroom at school or a new course in the army. I always wondered, when walking into a room of unknown people, whether they had read all these stories and what judgment they had already formed based on what they'd read in the tabloids," he said.
The prince appeared to suggest the media's depiction of him eradicated some of the privileges that come from being born a royal.
"Whatever advantage people claimed I had by walking into a room as 'Prince Harry' was immediately flipped on its head," he wrote, "because I was facing judgments and opinions based on what had been reported about me, true or not.
"I expected people to be thinking 'he's obviously going to fail this test, because he's a thicko.'"
U.K. polling agency YouGov does regular popularity surveys covering members of the royal family. It collected data showing that between 71 and 81 percent of the British public liked Harry between 2011 and 2019.
At the same time, his net approval rating, also factoring in those who disliked him, fluctuated between a high of +70 at the time of his engagement to Meghan Markle and a low of +49 in October 2019, following a year of relentlessly critical media coverage.
These are the kinds of figures the country's leading politicians can only dream of, with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at -8 as recently as May, with opposition leader Keir Starmer at -14.
Harry was also far more popular than his father, King Charles III, whose net approval rating fluctuated between a high of +32 and a low of +4. Queen Camilla's rating fluctuated between 0 and -19 during the same years.
The collapse in Harry's standing with the British public appeared to begin after he announced his decision to quit royal life in January 2020.
This past January, after the publication of his memoir, Spare, YouGov data put Harry's net approval rating at -44, substantially below Sunak and Starmer.
Ironically, Harry took a swipe at the British government in his witness statement. "At the moment, our country is judged globally by the state of our press and our government—both of which I believe are at rock bottom," he said.
The data does not suggest Harry was attempting to mislead the court, as he may well have felt he was at risk. But it does highlight a disconnect between Harry's perception of the impact of news stories on public opinion and the reality of how he was viewed by the British.
Prince Harry's Popularity as Measured by YouGov
June 2011—Liked by 80 percent, disliked by 15 percent, net rating +65.
August 2012—Liked by 75 percent, disliked by 20 percent, net rating +55.
June 2013—Liked by 80 percent, disliked by 14 percent, net rating +66.
November 2017—Liked by 81 percent, disliked by 11 percent, net rating +70.
October 2019—Liked by 71 percent, disliked by 22 percent, net rating +49.
January 2020—Harry and Meghan Markle announce their decision to quit royal life.
January 2020—Liked by 55 percent, disliked by 35 percent, net rating +20.
October 2020—Liked by 48 percent, disliked by 47 percent, net rating +1.
March 2021—Liked by 45 percent, disliked by 48 percent, net rating -3.
August 2021—Liked by 34 percent, disliked by 59 percent, net rating -25.
January 2023—Liked by 24 percent, disliked by 68 percent, net rating -44.
Jack Royston is chief royal correspondent for Newsweek, based in London. You can find him on Twitter at @jack_royston 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
Jack Royston is Newsweek's Chief Royal Correspondent based in London, U.K. He reports on the British royal family—including King Charles ... Read more