Prince Harry Mentions Estranged William in Court Statement: 'We Trusted Each Other'
Prince Harry’s latest court filing does more than bolster his case against Britain’s tabloids. Mentioned in a formal witness statement is a revealing image of how close and how complicated his royal relationships once were. In his witness statement, Harry named the people he trusted most and was in touch with during the years he says his privacy was repeatedly breached. Among them is his brother, Prince William.
The Duke took a stand at London’s High Court as part of his lawsuit against Associated Newspapers Limited, publisher of the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday. Harry, 41, is one of several high-profile claimants accusing the media group of unlawful information gathering, including phone hacking and the use of private investigators — claims the publisher strongly denies.
The centre of Harry’s legal argument is a list of individuals he says he was in 'regular contact' with between roughly 1996 and 2014, the period covered by his claim. The purpose was that Harry contended that the sensitive personal details appearing in newspaper stories could only have come from private communications shared within trusted relationships, and therefore must have been obtained unlawfully.
According to the witness statement, Harry identified 10 such associates. “HRH The Prince of Wales, my brother William,” the statement read. “Due to his position, the press has always been very interested in him. As brothers, we naturally discussed personal aspects of our lives as we trusted each other with the highly sensitive information we shared about our private, family, and professional lives.” The reference lands against the backdrop of a well-documented rift that has defined the brothers’ relationship in recent years. As Harry landed in the UK for the trial, William headed north to Scotland, and sources confirmed that Harry had no plans to meet his brother during this visit.
King Charles appears next in the filing, with Harry again pointing to the unavoidable media scrutiny that comes with senior royal status. “HM King Charles III, my father,” the statement said. “During the Relevant Period, my father and I were in regular contact. He was also of great interest to the press due to his position. My private information would have been present on voicemails, containing highly personal, private, and sensitive information, left on his landline phone by me, other members of my family, and the Royal Household.”
Chelsy Davy, Harry’s on-and-off girlfriend from 2004 to around 2010, is another key inclusion. “Chelsy Davy, a former girlfriend. We met in early 2004 and were in a relationship which continued, on and off, until around mid-2010,” Harry wrote. “Our relationship was long-distance for the majority of the time we were together, with Chelsy and me often living in different countries.”
He added that they regularly discussed deeply personal matters through calls, texts, and voicemails, noting: “As she was my girlfriend, I trusted Chelsy with the most private of information and vice versa.” Harry also referenced admissions by private investigator Gavin Burrows about unlawful activity connected to Davy, saying it was 'deeply troubling' but helped explain how so much information about them reached the press.