Prince Harry has testified in court as part of his ongoing legal case against Mirror Group Newspapers for unlawful phone hacking, describing his time spent in Australia as “awful.”
The 38-year-old is the first British royal to take to the stand in over 130 years, delivering a 55-page witness statement detailing his torment at the hands of the press.
WATCH NOW: Prince Harry arrives at High Court in London. Article continues after video.
Speaking on the British press specifically, the Duke of Sussex said some British tabloids had “blood on their hands” and had been “hostile” to him since he was born.
“How much more blood will stain their typing fingers before someone can put a stop to this madness?” he questioned emphatically.
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Amongst the 25,538-word statement, Prince Harry reflected on his ‘gap year’ in Australia in 2003 where he worked as a jackaroo in a remote Tooloombilla Property, describing the press intrusion as “suffocating.”
“The situation in Australia was awful for me and there was supposed to be an agreement that once I had done the press call on arrival, I would be left to get on with my gap year in private,” he wrote.
Reflecting on a specific article published in September 2003 about his time on the property, Harry revealed how at the time, he naively believed that following the initial press call, he would be left alone to enjoy his gap year and work as a jackaroo.
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“I was a teenager, and this made it clear that there was nowhere in the world, not even the Australian outback, where I wouldn’t be hounded by the press or paparazzi.”
“The most interesting part of this article for me is the line that I was staying inside ‘watching videos’ instead of working outside to avoid the camera crews.”
“I’m not sure how they knew what I was doing inside, the whole purpose of me avoiding the cameras was to avoid everyone knowing what I was doing at all times. It was suffocating.”
“I was only in Australia with a couple of UK bodyguards, so this is the kind of thing I would have moaned about over the phone and in voicemails.”
He also spoke candidly about a “secret” trip to Noosa, which the press had somehow been tipped off about, and knew where to wait to capture snaps of the Prince as he enjoyed the beach.
“I was only in Australia with a couple of UK bodyguards, so this is the kind of thing I would have moaned about over the phone and in voicemails.”
The phone hacking trial is expected to conclude by the end of this month, with a ruling from the judge expected sometime in the latter half of 2023.
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