Prince Harry and the media conglomerate News Group Newspapers have been locked in a bitter court battle for years. In a recent hearing, the Duke of Sussex was accused of “deliberately destroying evidence.”
These court dates are the reason Prince Harry, 39, has been returning to his homeland of the United Kingdom regularly for years. He has been in a long-running dispute with the publisher of the British “The Sun,” which is published by News Group Newspapers (NGN). As “Hello Magazine” reported on June 27, 2024, the recent hearing was about the release of texts, WhatsApp messages, and emails that Harry allegedly exchanged with Sir Clive Alderton, 57, Sir Michael Stevens, and JR Moehringer, 59. David Sherborne, the representative of the Duke of Sussex, stated that these demands were just a “fishing expedition” – an expression used by Sherborne to indicate that his opponents have no real evidence to support their request.
Prince Harry Must Explain Deleted Messages and Emails
Sir Clive Alderton was the Deputy Private Secretary to King Charles, 75, then Prince of Wales, and Queen Camilla, then Duchess of Cornwall, from 2006 to 2008. In 2009, Alderton was promoted to Private Secretary for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs for the couple, a position he held until 2012. Sir Michael Stevens worked for the royal family for around 20 years: He was the “Keeper of the Privy Purse,” the chief financial advisor to Queen Elizabeth II, †96. He retained this position under King Charles until October 2023, before the monarch decided “to have his own people in the important positions of the palace.” JR Moehringer worked as a ghostwriter with Prince Harry on his memoir “Spare.” The two men are said to have communicated mainly through the messenger service “Signal.”
According to Harry’s legal team, the messages between Moehringer and the Duke of Sussex were deleted before the book’s release in January 2023. Furthermore, the 39-year-old’s team must also explain why Hotmail addresses Harry used in 2014 are no longer accessible. According to “Hello Magazine,” NGN’s team searched two other email accounts of Harry’s for 55 keywords. Anthony Hudson KC represents the media conglomerate and demands “proper evidence”: “These messages are clearly under his [Prince Harry’s] control, even if they were deleted. That’s why we say that the search for texts and WhatsApps is important.” He fears “that this is another example of the claimant’s case being obscured. We say it is shocking and extraordinary that the claimant has deliberately destroyed [them] …”
Accusations of Obstruction
Anthony Hudson KC was then interrupted by the judge, who noted that it was “not clear” what exactly had happened to the deleted messages and emails. NGN accuses Prince Harry and his legal team of creating an “obstacle course.” The Duke of Sussex’s lawyer denied the allegations and emphasized that only “a handful” of the approximately 35,000 searched emails were “relevant.”
The Duke of Sussex vs. “The Sun” and NGN
The legal battle between the prince and the media conglomerate has been ongoing for several years. The focus of the negotiations is on alleged illegal methods of information gathering by journalists and private detectives of NGN. It concerns articles published in “The Sun” and the now-defunct tabloid “News of the World.” NGN denies Harry’s allegations. As recently as May, Prince Harry faced a setback in court, but the 39-year-old does not appear to be intimidated by this.