The Guardian might be the only trusted news source in the UK when it comes to fair coverage of Prince Harry’s lawsuits against the British tabloids. The Guardian’s coverage of the pretrial hearing in Harry’s case against the Sun was excellent – they devoted several articles to coverage of Harry’s statement to the court, as well as very helpful explainers about the timeline and backstory of what is a multi-decade crime spree and coverup at the highest levels of the British establishment. The biggest headline, without a doubt, is that William received a “very large sum” from News Group Newspapers (Murdoch’s outfit in the UK) as a “secret settlement” in 2020. This was the same time that the family was publicly aghast at Harry for so openly suing the Mirror, the Mail and the Sun, and it was also in the same timeline of the family openly participating in the smear campaign against Harry and Meghan, a campaign which saw the Sussexes flee the UK in the same year that William accepted that large sum of money. Are you interested in hearing about how King Charles is up to his neck in Rupert Murdoch’s bullsh-t as well? Well, here you go:

Queen Elizabeth II personally threatened Rupert Murdoch’s media company with legal proceedings over phone hacking only for her efforts to be undermined by the then Prince Charles, the high court has heard. Prince Harry said his father intervened because he wanted to ensure the Sun supported his ascension to the throne and Camilla’s role as queen consort, and had a “specific long-term strategy to keep the media on side” for “when the time came”.

The Duke of Sussex made the claims on Tuesday as part of his ongoing legal action against News Group Newspapers. The legal case lays bare Harry’s allegations of the deals between senior members of the British royal family and tabloid newspapers. The prince said his father, the king, had personally demanded he stop his legal cases against British newspaper outlets when they were filed in late 2019.

The court filings state: “I was summoned to Buckingham Palace and specifically told to drop the legal actions because they have an ‘effect on all the family’.” He added this was “a direct request (or rather demand) from my father” and senior royal aides.

In 2017, Harry decided to seek an apology from Murdoch’s News UK for phone hacking, receiving the backing of Queen Elizabeth II and his brother. His submission said: “William was very understanding and supportive and agreed that we needed to do it. He therefore suggested that I seek permission from ‘granny’. I spoke to her shortly afterwards and said something along the lines of: ‘Are you happy for me to push this forward, do I have your permission?’ and she said: ‘Yes.’”

Having received the support of Queen Elizabeth II, Harry said he asked the royal family’s lawyers to write to the Murdoch executives Rebekah Brooks and Robert Thomson and seek a resolution. Yet the company refused to apologise and, out of desperation, Harry discussed banning reporters from Murdoch-owned outlets from attending his wedding to Meghan, Duchess of Sussex. In 2018, Sally Osman, Queen Elizabeth II’s communications secretary, wrote an email to Harry explaining that she was willing to threaten legal action in the name of the monarch.

The email read: “The queen has given her consent to send a further note, by email, to Robert Thomson, CEO of News Corporation and Rebekah Brooks, CEO of News UK. Her Majesty has approved the wording, which essentially says there is increasing frustration at their lack of response and engagement and, while we’ve tried to settle without involving lawyers, we will need to reconsider our stance unless we receive a viable proposal.”

However, there was no apology, which Harry ascribes to a secret deal between the royal family and senior Murdoch executives to keep proceedings out of court. Harry claimed that, shortly before his wedding, he was informed Murdoch’s company would not apologise to the queen and the rest of the royal family at that stage because “they would have to admit that not only was the News of the World involved in phone hacking but also the Sun”, which they “couldn’t afford to do” as it would undermine their continued denials that illegal activity took place at the Sun.

Harry now believes his father and royal courtiers were prioritising positive coverage of his father and Camilla in the Sun, rather than seeking to back his legal claims. He said: “[T]hey had a specific long-term strategy to keep the media (including [Sun publisher] NGN) onside in order to smooth the way for my stepmother (and father) to be accepted by the British public as queen consort (and king respectively) when the time came … anything that might upset the applecart in this regard (including the suggestion of resolution of our phone-hacking claims) was to be avoided at all costs.”

[From The Guardian]

Harry suggested some of this in Spare – that Charles and William were both curious about how his lawsuits were proceeding when they all met for Philip’s funeral in 2021. Both Charles and William thought Harry’s lawsuits were a fool’s errand, or at least that was Harry’s perspective at the time. It feels more than likely that Harry left out parts of their conversation when writing Spare, like he was squirreling away certain facts and accusations for a rainy day, to be used in court. I’m still curious to find out when and how Harry learned about William’s secret settlement.

Anyway, I find it entirely possible that Harry’s assessment is completely accurate, that QEII signed off on Harry’s request to sue NGN and take it to the mattresses. This would have been 2017-18, a moment of huge transition for the royal households. In 2017, Charles pushed out his mother’s most trusted courtier, her private secretary Christopher Geidt and installed Edward Young in that position. Young took an immediate dislike to Harry and Meghan, and he did the most to damage them and push them out. 2017 was also when William and Kate were finally “moving to London” and supposed to become full-time royals (lol). Philip also retired that same year, and I believe Charles began operating as the shadow regent at that time. Of course Charles tried to shut down Harry’s efforts to get accountability. Charles “needs” the press on “his side.” The side of Queen Side Chick, first of her name.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Backgrid.