Prince Harry returned to London’s High Court on Wednesday, June 7, for his second day of testimony in his phone hacking lawsuit, where he opened up about his past relationship with Caroline Flack.
In his written statement, the Duke of Sussex, 38, claimed the Mirror Group Newspapers “unlawfully” gathered images of himself and those around him. As an example, Harry revealed that Flack — who died by suicide in 2020 — had been his friend since 2009, attending several “social events” together. In one instance, The People published photos of the pair in April 2009 and claimed the Spare author had “‘dashed’ from my helicopter training in Lincolnshire to be with Caroline.” The article further alleged that the duo “left the house after midnight” and an “onlooker” reported that they “looked very happy together.”
“I remember this article, and these photographs, so clearly because at the time, I was so shocked — and livid — that the two photographers from IKON Pictures knew where we would be and were already there, waiting for us to arrive,” Harry wrote. “They were hiding underneath a car. These photographers became known to me as there were numerous highly suspicious, and often dangerous, incidents involving them.”
The Invictus Games cofounder revealed that the snaps had been taken outside his friend Mark Dyer’s apartment, where he invited Flack to join his “poker night.”
“Caroline and I had been in contact for a couple of weeks. As Caroline was always of great interest to the [media outlets], she was often hounded by them, we had expected that meeting at Marko’s would be low key and private,” Harry recalled of the late TV presenter. “It was only the second time we met in person, I think. Marko and I had exchanged voicemails about the night we had planned, and given the way I left, there’s no way I could have been followed coming down from Lincolnshire. Only Marko, Caroline and I knew of the plans, there was only a couple of other people invited and I don’t think they knew that Caroline would be joining us.”
He continued: “Given the fact only the three of us knew the plan, I was highly suspicious and convinced someone had leaked the information to the press. I was angry. I hadn’t told anybody.”
The Eton College alum — who married Meghan Markle in May 2018 — confessed that he started to doubt Flack and Dyer’s trust in keeping the evening plans private. He and his brother, Prince William, “stopped talking” to Dyer “for a while” as a result.
“We just couldn’t understand how stories about us meeting privately with him ended up in the papers, or how photographers would end up outside his apartment,” Harry continued in his statement. “I now believe this information had come from our voicemails — mine, Marko’s or Caroline’s. The impact these kinds of stories had on my relationships cannot be underestimated. Even those I trusted the most, I ended up doubting.”
Harry and the late Love Island host were briefly linked in 2009, though the Archewell cofounder penned in Spare that they never seriously dated due to overwhelming media attention.
“I continued to see Flack on and off, but we didn’t feel free anymore. We kept on, I think, because we genuinely enjoy each other’s company, and because we didn’t want to admit defeat at the hands of these arseholes,” Harry wrote in his debut memoir, which was published in January, referring to the aftermath of the poker night photos. “But the relationship was tainted, irredeemably, and in time we realized it just wasn’t worth the grief and harassment. Especially for her family. Goodbye, we said. Goodbye and good luck.”
Harry’s lawsuit against the Mirror Group Newspapers — which publish newspapers like The Mirror — began on Monday, June 5, after he claimed the organization had hacked his phone to gather intel, which they’ve since denied. The duke, however, was not present for opening statements. His attorney David Sherborne told the judge that Harry was flying to London from his home base in Los Angeles after celebrating daughter Princess Lilibet’s 2nd birthday one day earlier on Sunday, June 4. (Harry and the Suits alum, 41, also share son Prince Archie, 4.)
