The Duke of Sussex appeared in court for the second day today as he pursues his case against the Daily Mail publisher Associated Newspapers.
Prince Harry has said the Royal Family withheld information from him about phone hacking because they didn’t want him to bring a claim as it would “open a can of worms”.
In a witness statement submitted before his civil claim against Daily Mail publisher Associated Newspapers, the Duke of Sussex said that he was “conditioned to accept” his family’s rule to “never complain, never explain” when dealing with the press.
But discussing phone hacking claims against News Group Newspapers, Harry said “I became aware that I had a claim that I could bring” in 2018.
“The Institution was without a doubt withholding information from me for a long time about NGN’s phone hacking and that has only become clear in recent years as I have pursued my own claim with different legal advice and representation,” he said.
Earlier in his submission he said he would refer to the Royal Family as “the Institution”.
The prince is among a group of claimants, including Sir Elton John, Liz Hurley and Sadie Frost, against Associated Newspapers accusing them of numerous breaches of privacy. The publisher denies all the allegations.
Speaking about how he found out other people within or associated with the Royal Family had brought phone hacking claims against the press, he says: “It is not an exaggeration to say that the bubble burst in terms of what I knew in 2020 when I moved out of the United Kingdom.”