Prince Harry might have just been named as Hollywood’s biggest loser, but he will be celebrating a victory today of sorts.
To summarise what happened at the High Court, Harry was a victim of phone hacking. He’s owed about £140,000 in compensation. Piers Morgan knew about phone hacking. Piers denies this, of course.
Prince Harry’s lawyer said in a statement issued after the verdict: ‘This case is not just about hacking. It is about a systemic practice of unlawful and appalling behaviour followed by cover-ups and destruction of evidence, the shocking scale of which can only be revealed through these proceedings.
“The court has found that Mirror Group’s principal board directors, their legal department, senior executives and editors, such as Piers Morgan, clearly knew about or were involved in these illegal activities.”
Well, earlier I said that Piers denies any allegations. I mean, in reality, he more than just denies it. He came out swinging.
Piers said: “Harry’s outrage at media intrusion into the private lives of the royal family is only matched by his own ruthless, greedy and hypocritical enthusiasm for doing it himself.
“This is a guy who’s repeatedly trashed his family in public for hundreds of millions of dollars, even as two of its most senior and respected members were dying. His grandparents.
“The Duke has been repeatedly exposed in recent years as someone who wouldn’t know the truth if it slapped him around his California tanned face. His real mission, along with his wife, is to destroy the British monarchy.”
So if Harry had his phone hacked and that impacted his relationships, friendships and his mental health, I have sympathy with him for that. I can understand Harry waging war on some rogue elements of the old-school tabloid press, but waging war on his own family and by extension the British public is unforgivable.
This is a hollow victory for Harry. When he sits down tonight and reflects he’ll have won a battle against some people that he hates and helped to pave the way for other action going forward.
But who is he celebrating with? Who has he got left? I can understand him wanting to cause Piers Morgan and Co. some personal discomfort, but what about the discomfort he caused to our late Queen and Prince Philip in their final moments? What about the disrespect he showed to our King on his coronation day by making a point of making it a flying visit?
What about him burning bridges with our future King William in his book Spare? What about him standing idly by while our future Queen Kate has been besmirched?
What about him crying into Oprah’s bosom, allowing unfounded allegations of racism to fester? What about taking millions and millions of pounds to throw shade over our royal family and shun the public who loved him so dearly?
None of what was decided in the High Court today excuses that. Harry could have pursued this court case without doing everything else.
He might have won today, but he’s lost nearly everything else. He should cling on to this victory because in reality, I think that’s all he’s got.
