Prince Harry today sought to drag the late Queen’s most senior courtiers into his court battle against the publisher of The Sun.
The Duke of Sussex is demanding to see emails between News UK, publisher of the Sun, and Lord Christopher Geidt, private secretary to Her Majesty until 2017, and his successor Sir Edward Young.
According to Harry’s lawyers, the courtiers held high level discussions with newspaper executives in 2017 about receiving compensation and apologies ‘to the entire Royal household including the Queen’ for ‘unlawful activities’ said to have included phone hacking.
The move threatens to further widen Harry’s rift with the King and his brother William. The duke has previously claimed William received compensation from the newspaper while he was cut out of a ‘secret’ deal.
Today David Sherborne, for the duke, said emails showed the late Queen had personally approved threatening the publisher with legal action if it did not respond.
Mr Sherborne read out an email that year from Prince Harry to his brother William and palace aides urging them to support ‘chasing up’ News UK, publisher of The Sun.
Harry said ‘it has been a year since this started’ and the publisher was ‘playing us’ with its alleged lack of response. In a reference to his brother, Harry wrote: ‘W, do you agree?’
A string of emails between palace officials and senior executives at the publisher, including Rebekah Brooks and Robert Thomson who both served as chief executive, has been disclosed by the publisher.
Mr Sherborne said they demonstrated there were discussions about the newspaper paying compensation and saying sorry to members of the royal family who had been hacked by journalists.
He said: ‘They are significant. Here, they are saying they will consider apologising and giving recompense to the entire royal household including the Queen as well.
‘That is something being dealt with only at the highest levels, it was hugely sensitive.’
But he claimed the email exchange was ‘not complete’ and there were ‘plainly’ further emails which his client had not been shown.
The Duke is applying to the court to order the publisher to conduct further searches of its email database for its messages with the palace courtiers.
Harry is one of two claimants suing the newspaper group, along with Labour peer Lord Watson.
A further 39 claimants who were part of their group legal action against the newspaper, including Spice Girl Melanie Brown, David Beckham’s father Ted, former WAG Louise Redknapp and Baroness Doreen Lawrence, have all now ‘recently’ settled out of court.
It follows actor Hugh Grant settling the case in April for what he called ‘an enormous sum’ of money.
Now the cases of Harry, 40, and former Labour deputy leader Lord Watson, 57, are the only ones still active, and a six to eight week trial is due to start in January, although Mr Sherborne has previously said it was likely all the claimants could be forced to settle because they could be left with huge legal bills if they rejected a settlement offer, even if they won at trial.
Harry has previously claimed there was a ‘secret agreement’ struck behind his back by the palace and the publisher – a claim dismissed by the judge, Mr Justice Fancourt, last year as ‘improbable’.
Harry’s lawyers have claimed William settled a claim against the publisher ‘for a very large sum of money’ in 2020 as part of the supposed ‘secret agreement’.
The judge ruled last year that this showed the publisher was ‘willing to settle with Prince William rather than become embroiled in litigation, as it has with the Duke’.
The publisher has always rejected allegations of any wrongdoing by staff at The Sun.
Opposing Harry’s application to see more emails, Anthony Hudson KC, for the publisher, said the duke ‘has known about these types of emails for years’.
He said it was very ‘late in the day’ to be requesting further searches so close to the trial date which would be ‘disproportionate, time consuming and costly’.
He said the documents sought were ‘not relevant’ and ‘not necessary to ensure a fair trial’. He added: ‘This is not a justified application.’
The judge will consider the arguments before making a ruling.