Harry says he lost friends because of ‘paranoia’ over ‘unlawful’ stories – live

The Duke of Sussex had “suspicion and paranoia” caused due to the publication of articles by Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) using unlawfully gathered information, the High Court has been told.

In written submissions for ANL, lawyers for the publisher quoted from documents filed on Harry‘s behalf.

Adrian Beltrami KC, for ANL, said the duke’s case was that “suspicion and paranoia was caused by Associated’s publication of the unlawful articles: friends were lost or cut off as a result and everyone became a ‘suspect’, since he was misled by the way that the articles were written into believing that those close to him were the source of this information being provided to Associated’s newspapers”.

The barrister continued: “The duke’s pre-action letter also stated that at the time he had become paranoid and suspicious by ‘unexplained disclosures of private information in your (ANL’s) publications’.”

Mr Beltrami added: “He stated that ‘the repeated, wrongful disclosures… had a serious and profound effect upon (him) at the time of their publication’ and that he had ‘painful memories… regarding the extent to which ANL publicised private and sensitive information relating to his private and family life’.”

Oprah Winfrey has shared her thoughts about Prince Harry and Meghan Markle and whether they should attend King Charles III’s coronation in May.

The talk show host, who has been close friends with the royal couple, briefly discussed the coronation with friend Gayle King on CBS Mornings, to promote her 100th selection for her book club, Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano.

During the conversation, King addressed recent reports about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex being invited to the big event, before asking Winfrey for her opinion on it. “Do you think they should go? Do you think they should not go? Is it something you’d like to comment on?”

In response, Winfrey, who conducted a bombshell interview about the royal family with Harry and Meghan in 2021, gave her advice to and showed her support for the pair. “I think they should do what they feel is best for them and their family,” she explained. “That’s what I think. That’s what the bottom line comes down to. What do you feel like is the right thing for you?”

A conservative think tank is calling for Prince Harry’s US visa application to be released so Americans can see whether or not he admitted to his past drug use before moving to California in the summer of 2020.

The Heritage Foundation, one of the country’s preeminent right-wing think tanks, is arguing that US officials should release the details of the prince’s application so Americans can see whether or not he was “properly vetted” before being allowed to enter the country. Applicants for US visas are typically asked about their criminal history and drug use.

In his most recent column, our sketch writer Tom Peck suggests it is “permissible to wonder quite what [Prince Harry] is trying to achieve with this morning’s flurry of excitement”. He writes:

Once the court rises, who is and isn’t there watching doesn’t matter in the slightest. But the act of being there, of being photographed, does. Vardy and Rooney were not really fighting each other for money in court; they were fighting, especially in Vardy’s case, to rehabilitate their reputation outside it.

The arrival shots each morning were every bit as important as the (quite often rather dry) courtroom drama. Prince Harry’s legal action against Associated Newspapers is meant to go to trial in May, and it’s very clear he’s going to be leaning into it very hard indeed, whipping up as much publicity, and therefore heaping up as much pressure, as he possibly can.

The monarch, who is set to be crowned alongside Queen Consort Camilla in just six weeks, reportedly wishes to end subsidised rents for members of the royal family over the next five years.

The expectation for royals to fund their own homes apparently also extends to working royals, including the Prince and Princess of Wales, the Princess Royal, and the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh.

One source was quoted as saying that the King “is not some sort of housing association for distant relatives”.

Friends close to Prince Andrew have hit out at reports that he is planning to write a memoir, reports my colleague Joe Middleton.

On Sunday, a number of newspapers claimed that the Duke of York was in talks to produce a tell-all autobiography, following the success of Prince Harry’s book Spare.

However, friends of his family have taken the unusual step to make his views known following the reports.

“He has one aim and that is family unity around his brother the King,” they said. “He is rock solid with him and will do everything he can to support him quietly and if necessary publicly. The idea that he is even considering writing or cooperating with a book least of all with a journalist is for the birds.”

“He is increasingly at the mercy of people writing stuff about him and his life which is pure fantasy,” the friend continued. “He leads a very quiet isolated life and sees almost nobody, least of all journalists.”

Associated Newspapers paid 10 different private investigators to conduct “illegal or unlawful information-gathering activities” against Baroness Doreen Lawrence, the High Court was told today.

In written arguments, David Sherborne, acting for the group of high-profile individuals also including Sir Elton John and Sadie Frost, said the newspaper group “widely and habitually carried out or commissioned” the activities and covered them up.

He claimed the investigators intercepted voicemails, tapped telephones, used deception and the “burglaries or the breaking and entering of private property in order to obtain private information” on the publisher’s behalf.

The court also heard that ANL paid “substantial amounts” for the services and that the amounts were “known to and approved by executives”.

Mr Sherborne added: “The claimant will contend that the use of these unlawful acts was both habitual and widespread across Associated’s newspapers during the period at least 1993 onwards to 2011, and even continued beyond until 2018.”

An artist says he plans on projecting a sculpture made using Afghan blood onto St Paul’s Cathedral, to protest Prince Harry’s claims about the number of soldiers he killed while serving in the military, my colleague Kate Plummer reports.

Russian artist Andrei Molodkin said he will take blood donated by Afghans for the sculpture and project it onto the London landmark later this week, saying the royal’s comments had made him “very, very angry”.

The Duke of Sussex attracted criticism after he detailed his time serving in Afghanistan in his memoir Spare earlier this year, claiming he killed 25 Taliban fighters during two tours in the country.