The publisher of a British tabloid has issued an apology to Prince Harry for illegally seeking information about him, at the beginning of a lawsuit in which the royal is

claiming "industrial-scale" phone-hacking. Harry, along with around 100 other celebrities, is suing Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), which owns the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and Sunday People, for frequently accessing private information through phone-hacking, deception, and other illicit methods between 1991 and 2011.

The claimants have accused senior editors and top executives of the newspapers of having full knowledge of and approving these unlawful practices, as well as covering them up. However, MGN has denied the allegations and contested the claims, stating that some of them were brought too late, and there was no evidence that Harry was a victim of hacking. MGN has denied that senior figures had any knowledge of unlawful activities.

In court documents submitted to the High Court in London, MGN admitted that on one occasion, a private investigator had been hired to illegally gather evidence about Harry at a London nightclub in 2004, for which MGN "unreservedly apologises and accepts that (Harry) is entitled to appropriate compensation." MGN's lawyers stated that the fee paid (£75) suggested that little work was involved and that they did not know to what it related. It was not part of the Duke of Sussex's claim.

Harry, who was not present at the start of the hearing, has been selected as one of four test cases for the seven-week trial and is due to give evidence in person in early June. He is the first British royal to do so since the 19th century, according to local media.

David Sherborne, the lawyer representing Harry and the other claimants, told the court that "Prince or not, the blatantly unlawful and illegal methods that were used by the defendant to get every piece of information about his life away from royal duties was quite frankly appalling. No one should have been subjected to that." Sherborne also stated that high-profile media figure Piers Morgan, the Daily Mirror editor from 1995 to 2004 and a former presenter on CNN, must have known about the "industrial-scale" hacking.

The trial began just days after his father's coronation on Saturday, where Harry played no formal role. Since stepping down from their royal roles in 2020, Harry and his wife Meghan have criticized the press and the palace, including those working for his brother Prince William and his stepmother, Queen Camilla, stating that they had colluded in media "lies."

In court submissions, MGN's lawyers said that many of the roughly 140 stories that Harry claimed must have come from unlawful means had, in fact, been briefed by royal aides. However, a document submitted by Harry's lawyers detailed incidents of "highly suspicious" calls made by MGN to his friends, aides, and family, including his sister-in-law Kate, the Princess of Wales. The document also alleged that 267 payments were made to investigators to look into Harry and those close to him, including Charles, William, and Harry's late mother Princess Diana. MGN's behavior ultimately led to Harry's split from his ex-girlfriend Chelsy Davy, according to the document. Photo by Minerva97, Wikimedia commons.