The Duke of Sussex has told the High Court that a newspaper’s reporting of his break-up with former girlfriend Chelsy Davy was “hurtful” and appeared to celebrate their split.
Harry spent a second day being cross-examined about his claims that tabloids published by Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) featured articles about him based on alleged unlawful information gathering including phone hacking.
Andrew Green KC, MGN’s barrister, questioned him about a November 2007 Sunday Mirror article headlined “Hooray Harry’s dumped”.
The story reported that the duke went to west London nightclub Amika and “drowned his sorrows” over the split, with Harry complaining over its alleged use of his private information.
He told the court the article headline “does seem to suggest that people are celebrating”, adding it “is a little bit mean”.
Zimbabwean-born Ms Davy spent around seven years dating Harry. They had a long-distance relationship while he was training in the Army and overseas and she was at university in South Africa.
They split in early 2009, but after both reportedly had other flings they rekindled their relationship, and in May 2010 Ms Davy made a rare public appearance to watch him receive his wings after completing his Army Air Corps helicopter pilot course.
The couple later broke up again but have remained friends, and she attended his wedding to Meghan in 2018.
Harry told the High Court: “‘Hooray Harry’s dumped’ was hurtful, to say the least, that such a private moment was turned into a bit of a laugh.”
Referencing a private investigator invoice, he said the fact that “these payments were referred to as ‘Project Harry’ is incredibly disturbing”.
“The level of surveillance that I was under was quite something,” the duke added.
Mr Green said of the article: “It’s not celebrating the demise of the relationship.”
MGN has said in court documents that it does not know what activities the invoice refers to or whether it relates to the story.
The publisher also said information in the story came from a News of the World article on the same day and that there was no evidence of phone hacking.
Harry is suing MGN for damages, claiming journalists at its titles – which include the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and Sunday People – were linked to methods including phone hacking, so-called “blagging” or gaining information by deception, and use of private investigators for unlawful activities.
The duke alleges that about 140 articles published between 1996 and 2010 by MGN titles contained information gathered using unlawful methods, and 33 have been selected to be considered at the trial.
A number reporting on Harry and Ms Davy’s relationship were featured during his second day in the witness box, and he was asked what details in a story headlined “Davy stated” – published by the Sunday People in September 2007 – were the product of phone hacking.
The duke replied: “I never discussed with the palace any details about my relationship with my girlfriend, so attributing such personal information to a palace source is incredibly suspicious.”
In his written witness statement, Harry referenced a story from November 2007 which appeared in the Irish edition of the Sunday Mirror and reported details of his relationship with Ms Davy.
He wrote: “It reported that Chelsy and I had a ‘secret meeting’ where I had ‘begged her for a second chance’.”
He added: “These kinds of articles made me feel as though my relationship with Chelsy was always set to be doomed.”
