The high-profile Prince Harry privacy trial has begun in London. Previously unknown details about Kate Middleton were revealed during the trial.
The High Court in London is currently hearing a lawsuit brought by the youngest son of British King Charles III. Prince Harry accuses the tabloid Daily Mail of illegally collecting information about him and Meghan Markle. Mail on Sunday reporter Charlotte Griffiths testified in the case. She stated that she respected the privacy of members of the royal family.
As evidence, the participant in the trial recounted a story that occurred in 2012, when Kate Middleton was expecting her first child, Prince George. The journalist claimed she was one of the first to learn of the news, overhearing William’s conversation at a party at the country house of a close friend of the prince’s in Wiltshire. He told the owner of the estate that his wife would be unable to join them because she was suffering from morning sickness.
The news hadn’t yet been made public, and the prince hadn’t even told senior members of the royal family. “I didn’t report it to the newspaper because I didn’t want to cross the line,” Charlotte noted in her testimony.
According to a royal reporter, Geordie Greig, then the publication’s editor, was annoyed when St. James’s Palace announced Kate’s pregnancy three days later. “I missed an opportunity to maintain a friendly relationship because I knew where the line was and chose not to cross it,” Griffiths said.
Associated Newspapers, which publishes both tabloids, denies allegations that its journalists hired private investigators to hack voicemails, intercept landline calls, and leak personal information. Charlotte denied using hacking or surveillance to find information about Prince Harry. She said she relied on “social connections” when writing about members of the monarchy . Griffiths’ sources included friends of Harry and William, who invited her to events attended by the princes, the Daily Mail reports.
Lawyer David Sherborne expressed confusion over why William told his friends about Kate’s pregnancy before sharing the news with his grandmother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, and his father, Charles. He suggested that Charlotte had fabricated the story to present herself in a favorable light.
“On Friday, William arrived alone and explained that Kate was suffering from morning sickness. The fact that she was pregnant with their first child would have been big news, and St. James’s Palace only confirmed it the following Monday, when Kate had to go to hospital. Geordie Greig found out I knew and was furious that I hadn’t told him, as we could have gotten ahead of the competition. But this was information I learned at a private event, attended in my capacity as a private citizen, so I treated it accordingly,” the reporter retorted.
Griffiths said she met some of Harry’s friends as a teenager. In 2011, the prince added her as a friend on social media. When she started working at the Ministry of Justice, he gave her his phone number. The reporter explained that she attended two parties attended by Harry, including a night out in London.
The court heard that one phone conversation and three text messages were recorded between her and the disgraced prince, which, according to the defendant, were unrelated to her work. One evening, she attended a party invited by a mutual friend. However, she had to text Harry and then call him because the music was too loud and the host couldn’t hear the doorbell. David Sherborne added that the Duke of Sussex stopped communicating with Charlotte as soon as he learned she was a journalist. During his testimony, Meghan Markle’s husband stated that neither he nor his friends had spoken to the reporters from the aforementioned tabloids.
