On the surface, I don’t have much in common with Prince Harry. He was born into royalty, and I was born into, well, not that. So it’s rare to feel that he and I are on the same level, but on one thing we are most assuredly in agreement: Piers Morgan sucks. Like, a lot. I don’t understand how America was finally able to send James Corden back to the U.K., but we’re still stuck with Morgan. Honestly, we should consider fighting another war with England over this, but I digress. In case you’re not one of those really online people who obsessively catalog everything Prince Harry does because you hate that he’s married to Meghan Markle, you may not know that he is currently suing the pants off a lot of people, with five active lawsuits. Per USA Today:
One is related to reinstating his family’s police protection; two others are against separate newspaper companies, Mirror Group Newspapers and News Group Newspapers, accusing them of illegal information gathering; and two suits against Associated Newspapers Ltd. accuse them of libel and illegal information gathering.
He just gave testimony for his lawsuit against Mirror Group Newspapers, and a lot of interesting things are coming out of it as a result, including his hatred of Piers Morgan. As The Intelligencer reports:
“The thought of Piers Morgan and his band of journalists earwigging into my mother’s private and sensitive messages (in the same way as they have me) and then having given her a ‘nightmare time’ three months prior to her death in Paris, makes me feel physically sick,” Prince Harry said.
For context, in 2011 it was discovered that multiple newspapers owned by Rupert Murdoch in the U.K. were hacking into prominent people’s phones—for years. Piers Morgan was implicated in this scandal as he was the editor of one of the publications at the time. See? He’s always been a terrible person!
Harry further went in for the kill, per the above source:
Harry added that he and Meghan have been “subjected to a barrage of horrific personal attacks and intimidation” from Morgan, “presumably in retaliation and in the hope that I will back down, before being able to hold him properly accountable for his unlawful activity towards both me and my mother during his editorship.”
I think that it’s safe to say that everything Murdoch touches is left with a film of slime. Meanwhile, Morgan has insisted that when he was editor, nothing illegal happened. OK, Piers.
Still, Harry is positive that his phone has been hacked before:
“I remember on multiple occasions hearing a voicemail for the first time that wasn’t ‘new,’” he wrote. “I also distinctly remember people saying to me ’did you not get my voicemail?’ on both a personal and a work-related level. I was like, ’no,’ and sometimes I would go back into my voicemail to look for it but still couldn’t find it.”
At the time Harry thought these were glitches, as cell phones were new, but now he believes the strange activity is evidence that [Mirror Group Newspapers] journalists had hacked his voicemails.
As I’ve already established, I am a non-royal and of no importance to tabloids, so I can say confidently that I’ve never had the above happen to me. Nor has it happened to any of my friends, so, you know, do the math.
If you’re wondering why Harry is suing now, despite years of torment from tabloids, it appears he got resistance from within the Royal family, despite having the late Queen Elizabeth’s blessing to proceed with a lawsuit. Per The Intelligencer:
He talked to Prince William about his desire to get “permission to push for a resolution to our phone-hacking claims and a formal apology from Murdoch.”
William was supportive and urged him to talk to “Granny,” Harry said. He wrote in the witness statement: “I spoke to her shortly afterwards and said something along the lines of ‘Are you happy for me to push this forward, do I have your permission?’ and she said ‘yes.’”
But despite this authorization from the queen herself, Harry alleged that the royal institution was “seemingly blocking our every move” as part of its effort to keep the media “onside in order to smooth the way for my stepmother, and father, to be accepted by the British public as queen consort and king respectively.”
So, his father, Charles, threw Harry and his family to the wolves to stay good with the tabloids so that he could position Camilla as Queen once he became King. That is some raggedy lowdown no-good behavior if I ever saw it, and all I can say is: Princess Diana would NEVER.
I know Harry has said in the past that he doesn’t want to take down the monarchy, but if he were to change in mind when these lawsuits conclude? Well, based on how his father treated him and his family, I wouldn’t blame him.
(featured image: Carl Court, Getty Images)
