Princess Diana’s brother Charles Spencer has thrown his support behind his nephew, Prince Harry, following his back-to-back appearances at London’s High Court this week.
The Duke of Sussex is suing Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) for damages, claiming its journalists opted for unethical methods to obtain information, as well as using private investigators and phone-hacking tactics.
And despite Harry’s family refusing to publicly speak out about the court case, the 9th Earl Spencer, 58, has publicly defended his nephew against the publisher.
Taking to Twitter Wednesday, Charles replied to Daily Mail columnist Amanda Platell, who tweeted, “Is Harry still obsessed with former love Chelsy Davy? Harry mentions her 118 times in court evidence, Meghan just five times. No wonder Meg’s didn’t show up!”
Charles wasted no time slamming Platell’s take, writing, “Pathetic, @amandajplatell – you have no shame, and even less credibility. Last time I heard from you, you were guilty of libeling me, as your employer at @DailyMailUK agreed. Now you’re put up (by them?) to misrepresent significant legal evidence as if it was something trivial.”
Harry was forced to recall his relationship with ex-girlfriend Chelsy Davy in court.
The pair dated from 2004 until 2009.
Charles, who promised at his late sister’s funeral in 1997 to look after his nephews Harry and Prince William, was later asked to clarify the “significant evidence” given by Harry in the phone hacking claim.
“The tens of millions paid out by the @DailyMirror group to those they hacked, to start with. Hope that helps,” Charles wrote in a follow-up tweet.
The Mirror Group has maintained it had used documents, public statements, and sources to legally report on the royal.
The case against Mirror Group is the first of Harry’s multiple lawsuits against the media to go to trial — and one of three alleging tabloid publishers unlawfully snooped on him.
Harry’s court appearance made him the most senior member of the royal family to be cross-examined since the 1890s.
During his testimony Wednesday, Harry said it was “hurtful” to stumble upon stories cheering about his break-up with Davy.
The duke said headlines appeared to celebrate the news, rather than sympathize.
“Going through it again now — ‘Hooray Harry is Dumped’ was hurtful to say the least, that such a private moment was turned into a bit of a laugh,” the exiled royal said.
“The fact that the payments were referred to as Project Harry is incredibly disturbing. The level of surveillance that I was under was quite something.”
Lawyer Andrew Green KC, representing Mirror Group Newspapers, asked the exiled royal, “You’re not suggesting that ‘Hooray Harry’ was a reference to celebrating that you were being dumped, are you?”
“Again, if it has been used before or not, for me, to be the subject or victim of this, to see the word used in this term is hurtful,” Harry told the court.
