On the second day of Prince Harry‘s privacy case against the publisher of the Daily Mirror at the High Court, more details have emerged about alleged media intrusion into his relationship with his ex-girlfriend Chelsy Davy.
The Duke of Sussex, 38, is suing the Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) over allegations that it used unlawful information gathering methods – including phone hacking – to publish 140 stories about his private life from 1996 to 2010.
MGN claims the articles came from a range of legitimate sources, rather than unlawful means, such as other royals, members of the Royal Household and freelance journalists.
What Prince Harry say about his relationship with Chelsy Davy?
Prince Harry has previously accused the media of being responsible for his break-up with Ms Davy, as he told the High Court the pair were “never alone” due to media intrusion.
In his written testimony, the Duke of Sussex said much of the pair’s relationship from 2004 to 2010 had been long distance, meaning voicemails had been a crucial way for them to stay in touch.
Harry accused MGN of “blagging” the couple’s flight details and hotel bookings and/or intercepting their voicemails after journalists turned up while they holidayed on a small island off Mozambique.
The Duke said their circle of friends became smaller and smaller and he found it hard to trust anyone which led to bouts of depression and paranoia. “Ultimately, these factors led [Chelsy] to make the decision that a royal life was not for her, which was incredibly upsetting for me at the time,” Harry said.
What specific stories has Prince Harry referenced?
Prince Harry cited a story published by the Mirror about a holiday he took with Ms Davy to Mozambique, which included a paragraph detailing when he was due to return.
He referred to: “The paragraph that says ‘Harry, who will fly back to Britain on December 19… .’
“Not only is that a security risk, I can’t begin to imagine how the journalists would have known,” he added.
The Duke said he thought it could have been obtained through “flight blagging” or phone hacking, adding: “Either way I’m not sure how these journalists … would know what date I am flying back.”
Andrew Green KC, acting for MGN, turned to information in the People article about the Duke using the computer room at Sandhurst to email Ms Davy and suggested someone at the academy could have seen him doing so.
Harry said: “Unless somebody was watching me specifically for that, no, I don’t believe so.”
Asked if he believed that information came from unlawful information-gathering, the Duke replied: “Yes, my lord, I have no idea how anybody would know.”
Responding to another question about whose phone could have been hacked to obtain that information, Harry said: “I believe the Mirror Group had Ms Davy’s number at this time.
“I’m not entirely sure my girlfriend would have given Mirror Group her number and also at the time my number was in [journalist] Nick Buckley’s palm pilot, and he was a prolific hacker.”
What else was mentioned in Prince Harry’s court case?
The court on Wednesday also discussed a The People article from April 2006 headlined “Chel shocked”.
This piece said that Ms Davy “blew her top” about a “boozy” evening the Prince had in a “sleazy strip joint”.
Harry wrote in his witness statement: “The detail about the timing and length of the calls is so specific.”
He also said that there are two payments to private investigators in MGN records which he thinks are linked to the story.
The court heard about a September 2007 article entitled “Davystated: Three Huge Rows Rock Royal Romance,” published in The People.
It stated that: “Prince Harry’s romance with Chelsy Davy is in crisis after a string of bitter bust-ups.”
“Stunning Chelsy, 21, is said to be ‘furious and deeply upset’ with Harry after THREE monumental rows.”
In his witness statement, Prince Harry wrote: “I really cannot understand how the defendant’s journalists obtained such specific details for this article, however given what I know about [reporter] Dean Rousewell’s activities, I find it very suspicious.
“I certainly wasn’t discussing our relationship in these kind of details with anyone inside the Palace.
“Given the hours I was working at the time, it’s likely Chelsy and I did exchange voicemails even more often than normal, so I now believe that this information must have come from the hacking of our voicemails.”
Harry said in court that this article is “suspicious” because it speaks of a “Palace source” when “I never discussed any details with the Palace about my relationship”.
Mr Green replied that we are in the “land of total speculation about where this information might have come from”.
“Not at all, I disagree,” Harry responded.
The Duke also told the court on Wednesday that he had once found a tracking device on Ms Davy’s car.
He alleged the device was placed there by a private investigator, Mike Behr, whom Harry has also accused of other similar behaviour.
Where is Chelsy Davy now?
Ms Davy, 37 and who was born in Zimbabwe, famously dated Prince Harry for seven years in an on-and-off relationship from 2004 to 2011.
She is reported to be married to Sam Cutmore-Scott and to have had a son, Leo, with him. They are said to live in a four-storey Victorian terrace in Chiswick, west London.
In 2016, Ms Davy started up her own business, an African jewellery brand called Aya, which has now expanded to include other lifestyle elements.