‘Moved out of UK because…’: Prince Harry slams royal family in shock testimony

Prince Harry Trial: Prince Harry claimed that he was forced to adopt the royal family’s policy of “never complain, never explain” with respect to media scrutiny.

Prince Harry hit out at the royal family in a testimony in London’s High Court as the Duke of Sussex accused them of “withholding information” from him for “a long time” to prevent him from opening “a can of worms”. The comments were made by Prince Harry during a trial in which he and other high-profile figures sued publisher Associated Newspapers Ltd (ANL) over alleged phone hacking.

Prince Harry Trial: Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex gets in the car as he leaves the Royal Courts of Justice, Britain's High Court, in central London. (AFP)

In his witness statement, Prince Harry claimed that he was forced to adopt the royal family’s policy of “never complain, never explain” with respect to media scrutiny, saying, “Following the death of my mother in 1997 when I was 12 years old and her treatment at the hands of the press, I have always had an uneasy relationship with the press."

“However, as a member of the Institution the policy was to ‘never complain, never explain.’ There was no alternative; I was conditioned to accept it. For the most part, I accepted the interest in my performing my public functions," he added.

When his relationship with Meghan Markle began, Prince Harry said that he was “increasingly troubled by the approach of not taking action against the press in the wake of vicious persistent attacks on, harassment of and intrusive, sometimes racist articles concerning Meghan."

“The situation got worse”, he claimed, adding, “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.”

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle left the UK in 2020 after stepping back from royal duties.

“There was never any centralised discussion between us about who had brought claims as each office in the Institution is siloed. There is this misconception that we are all in constant communication with one another but that is not true,” Prince Harry said.