Yahoo News Prince Harry stories came from members of Royal Family, Daily Mirror publisher claims in court
Prince Harry himself has previously spoken about leaks from within the Firm, commenting in his book Spare that members of the royal family briefed the press
The publisher of the Daily Mirror has claimed members of the Royal Family were responsible for revelations about Prince Harry appearing in the press.
In the ongoing phone-hacking trial against Mirror Group Newspapers by the Duke of Sussex and others, the publisher denied that 28 out of the 33 articles in Harry’s claim involved phone hacking or other unlawful information gathering, according to written submissions from MGN’s barrister Andrew Green, KC.
Instead, it was claimed some of the information in the articles came from members of Harry's own family, as well as from other sources.
The legal document, seen by Yahoo News, states: "Many came from information disclosed by or on behalf of royal households or members of the Royal Family".
Read more: Follow Yahoo News UK's live coverage of the phone-hacking trial
Prince Harry himself has previously spoken about alleged leaks from within 'the Firm', claiming in his book Spare that members of the Royal Family briefed the press against one another.
Harry specifically claimed that Queen Camilla leaked royal stories to improve her own image.
“I have complex feelings about gaining a step-parent who I thought had recently sacrificed me on her personal PR altar,” he wrote of Camilla marrying his father in 2005.
In an interview with ITV's Tom Bradby following the publication of his memoir, the Duke of Sussex was asked how he would respond to people who said his book had violated the privacy of his family.
"That would be the accusation from people that don’t understand or don’t want to believe that my family have been briefing the press," he replied.
On another occasion, in Meghan and Harry's Netflix documentary series, the couple said there had been a number of occasions in which they believed leaks to the press had come from within the palace.
"It became clear that the institution leaked the fact that we were going to be moving back to Canada," Harry said in episode 5 of the series.
"And the key piece of that story that made me aware that the contents of the letter between me and my father had been leaked was that we were willing to relinquish our Sussex titles. That was the giveaway. … Our story, our life, literally got taken from underneath us."
Buckingham Palace has yet to release an official statement in response to the claims made by Harry.
In an interview with the Sunday Times last month, the Marchioness of Lansdowne said Camilla was hurt by the comments made. “Of course it bothers her, of course it hurts," she said.
"But she doesn’t let it get to her. Her philosophy is always, ‘Don’t make a thing of it and it will settle down – least said, soonest mended’.’”
The phone-hacking trial got under way in the High Court on Wednesday and involves four "representative" cases – Harry plus former soap actress Nikki Sanderson, comedian Paul Whitehouse's ex-wife Fiona Wightman and actor Michael Turner – accusing MGN used "unlawful" methods to obtain information.
David Sherborne, barrister for the Duke of Sussex and others bringing damages claims against MGN, has said one of the “most seriously troubling features” of their cases was the allegation that those responsible for management and finances of the company “were well aware of what was going on”.
MGN denies that they hacked the claimant’s phones and argues that the claims have been brought beyond the statutory limit, but admitted in court filings that the publisher’s titles used unlawful information gathering techniques to find out confidential information about Harry and two of the other claimants - Nikki Sanderson and comedian Paul Whitehouse’s ex-wife Fiona Wightman.
