Prince Harry has done a sit-down interview with a U.K. network about his battle to expose phone hacking following deeply personal revelations published in the British press.
The Duke of Sussex spoke to ITV News' health correspondent Rebecca Barry about the "illegal activities of Britain's tabloid newspapers," according to Chris Ship, the network's royal editor, writing on X, formerly Twitter.
An ITV press release also said: "Featuring Prince Harry's first major interview since the conclusion of his court case with Mirror Group Newspapers, this documentary hears about his mission to continue his fight to expose the illegal tactics of Britain's tabloid press and explores what those in charge at Fleet Street really knew as this scandal unfolded."
Fleet Street is the generic term used to describe the U.K. press and stems from the time when the majority of British newspapers were located on the street in central London.
The documentary, Tabloids On Trial will be broadcast on ITV1 and ITVX, at 9 p.m. on Thursday, July 25.
Prince Harry sued Rupert Murdoch-owned News Group Newspapers (NGN), publisher of The Sun, and Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) in September 2019.
And he succeeded in proving MGN had hacked his phone and breached his privacy, though his case against NGN continues.
The phone-hacking element was struck out because he filed the lawsuit too late and he has faced further hiccups, including when a judge ruled he could not call Murdoch to give evidence.
It is on its way to trial in 2025, while arguments between the two sides persist about how much evidence Harry has released. The Sun has always denied phone hacking and the publisher is contesting the case.
More recently though, Harry sued the Daily Mail and its sister titles for historic phone hacking and wire tapping, among other claims, and the publisher has indicated he may well have a fierce fight on his hands.
The newspaper's lawyers argue a key private investigator used in Harry's case has since retracted his allegations. The dispute looks set to be resolved in court.
"The phone-hacking scandal exposed a murky tabloid world where stealing secrets was big business and privacy, meaningless," the ITV press release read.
"It's been almost two decades since the story broke and subsequent legal actions have revealed that hacking was apparently just the start, with victims accusing some of Britain's biggest newspapers of tapping landlines, fitting properties with listening devices and even burglaries to order—in the name of journalism. Allegations that have been strongly denied."
The ITV interview could well tap into deeply personal aspects of Harry's life story which have been brought up in the lawsuits.
During just one of his many outspoken remarks from the three cases, Harry said in a witness statement that he had tried to use his wedding to Meghan Markle to force Murdoch to apologize.
"Given the level of abuse that she had suffered by that stage, by doing nothing other than being my partner, I was understandably upset and protective of my wife to be, especially when I heard that the main culprits of this abuse from these tabloid newspapers would be invited to our wedding," he said.
"How could they be permitted to have a ring side seat and then sell millions of newspapers and clicks on the back of it, when all they have sought to do is destroy our relationship, destroy my wife with their endless lies while giving a platform to her abusers, when most of these 'journalists' knew the truth anyway because of the illegal methods they had used to dig into her past?
"I remember speaking to my brother and saying something along the lines of, 'Enough of this, I want to get permission to push for a resolution to our phone-hacking claims and a formal apology from Murdoch before any of his people are allowed anywhere near the wedding' or words to that effect.
"I felt very angry about his newspapers' appalling treatment of my wife and frustrated that nothing had been resolved on the phone-hacking front during the previous 12 months."
Jack Royston is chief royal correspondent for Newsweek, based in London. You can find him on X (formerly Twitter) at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.
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