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Mar 11, 2023

Prince Harry in court: Sources were behind stories, not hacking

Dominic Casciani Legal correspondent, reporting from court A key article in

Dominic Casciani

Legal correspondent, reporting from court

A key article in Prince Harry's case was in The People in 2003, where he is clearly alleging possible phone hacking.

It revealed a private disagreement between the prince and his brother, Prince William, over how to handle Paul Burrell, their late mother's former butler, whom they thought should stop talking to journalists about her private life.

The story quotes Prince Harry calling Burrell a "two-faced s***" - and he says the journalists may have got that from a voicemail interception.

Prince Harry says: "Our disagreement over to how to handle the situation going forward was not something I wanted splashed across the defendant's newspapers, and I have no idea how the defendant's journalists obtained the information within the article.

"A ‘senior royal source’ is quoted within the article, reflecting my exact private feelings - including that I was 'dead against any meeting' and that a meeting would be 'pandering to Burrell's attention-seeking and self-interest'.

"I also would have used the phrase "two-face s***", as is reported and believe this could have been lifted directly from a voicemail I had left," he says in his witness statement.