Prince Harry opens up in court about claim King Charles is not his real father
The prince faced accusations that his real father is James Hewitt by becoming the first royal in 130 years to be questioned in court. See the latest developments here.
Prince Harry says he feared British tabloid journalists wanted to prove his father was James Hewitt so he could be “kicked out” of the royal family.
Harry made the remarks in a witness statement released on Tuesday morning as he became the first senior royal to give evidence and be cross-examined in an open court in more than 130 years.
As part of his statement, Harry detailed dozens of articles he believes Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) obtained through illegal means, including voicemail hacking.
One of them was an article published in 2002 in the Sunday People titled: “Plot to steal Harry’s DNA.”
Harry said the article “reported a plot to steal a sample of my DNA to prove my ancestry” in the wake of multiple rumors that Hewitt was his father after his mother admitted to having an affair with him in her interview in Panorama with Martin Bashir.
In his statement, Harry said: “Numerous newspapers had reported a rumor that my biological father was James Hewitt, a man with whom my mother had a relationship after I was born. At the time of this article and others like it, I actually didn’t know that my mother had not met Major Hewitt until after I was born. This chronology is something I only learned about in 2014, although I now understand that it was common knowledge among the defendant’s journalists.
“At the time, when I was 18 and had lost my mother just six years earlier, stories like this seemed very damaging and very real to me. They were hurtful, mean and cruel. I always wondered the motives behind the stories. Did the newspapers want to sow doubts in public opinion so that I would be expelled from the royal family?”
Harry addressed the rumors that Hewitt was his father in his memoir, Spare, writing: “Some journalists were even said to be looking for my DNA to prove it; It was my first indication that, after tormenting my mother and sending her into hiding, they would soon come for me.”
Harry’s testimony was made public after he arrived at the High Court on Tuesday morning. He got out of a black SUV in central London shortly before 10 a.m. local time.
Harry wore a dark suit and said “good morning” to the reporters waiting for him. He is testifying in his case against Mirror Group Newspapers, the publishers of the British tabloid Daily Mirror, whom he accuses of publishing stories based on illegally obtained information.
After a brief recap of his own witness statement, MGN’s lawyer Andrew Green began cross-examination, with proceedings continuing on Wednesday.
A major law magazine has described Green as “a beast in the courtroom,” and Legal 500 said he was: “A spectacular master of cross-examination; “His charming manner puts the judge on his side and makes his evisceration of witnesses all the more devastating.”
