Prince Harry has claimed Piers Morgan “knew about, encouraged and concealed” illegal targeting of Diana, Princess of Wales when he was editor of the News of the World.
Harry alleges that his mother’s private text messages and phone calls were obtained by journalists working for Rupert Murdoch’s tabloid newspapers before she died, with the information used as the basis for multiple stories in the Sun and the News of the World.
Harry alleged in court documents that this illegal targeting of Diana – as well as Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles – was known about and hidden by Morgan and other editors in the mid-1990s.
Morgan, who now hosts a nightly show on Murdoch’s TalkTV channel, has always denied any direct knowledge of phone hacking during his time as a tabloid newspaper editor. The television presenter has had repeated run-ins with Harry. In 2021, Morgan quit ITV’s Good Morning Britain after making comments about the prince’s wife, Meghan.
Harry lists a number of articles that were published during Morgan’s time as News of the World editor between January 1994 and August 1995. The prince alleges that all were the result of illegal information-gathering.
They include:
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“Di’s cranky phone calls to married Oliver; She called 3 times in 9 minutes and hung up as she heard Oliver’s voice”, about Diana’s alleged relationship with the art dealer Oliver Hoare.
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“Di’s roam alone”, about Diana flying to the US on holiday and leaving behind princes William and Harry with other members of the royal family.
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“Di and Fergie bury the hatchet”, about a private meeting between Diana and the Duchess of York.
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“It’s Diana or me; Di: Will’s my dear friend – not my lover; Carling sneaked into palace when boys went out”, about Diana’s alleged relationship with the England rugby player Will Carling.
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“Di’s VJ Day fury over Tiggy”, about a supposed dispute between Diana and the royal nanny Tiggy Legge-Bourke.
Several of these stories were written by Clive Goodman, the newspaper’s royal correspondent, who would later be sent to prison for hacking Prince William’s voicemails.
One of the stories that is allegedly based on illegally gathered information was written by the News of the World reporter Gary Jones, who is now the editor of the Daily Express.
Harry made the allegations in proposed amendments to his phone-hacking claim against Murdoch’s company News Group Newspapers (NGN), which is being heard at the high court.
He also alleges that journalists working for NGN obtained messages from Diana’s secret personal pager – a device used to receive text messages before the widespread use of mobile phones.
Harry states that a 21-page log of text messages sent to this device in late 1994 by Oliver Hoare were later found in a safe in the office of Tom Crone, a top lawyer at Murdoch’s company.
The messages were said to include Hoare asking Diana whether her children were staying with their grandparents and questioning whether William and Harry were excited to meet members of Take That.
Harry also claims that journalists working for Murdoch’s newspapers intercepted personal phone calls and messages sent by his father, now King Charles, and his stepmother, Camilla.
Morgan has also been linked to other phone-hacking allegations relating to his time as editor of the Mirror between 1995 and 2004. Last year, lawyers suing the Mirror’s parent company alleged that Morgan “must have had knowledge of voicemail interception” during the time he was running the tabloid. Harry has a separate legal case against the publisher of the Mirror, which is due to go to trial next month at the high court.
The television presenter Jeremy Paxman, speaking under oath at the Leveson inquiry, said Morgan once invited him for lunch and explained how a mobile phone’s voicemails could be hacked. Morgan has previously told the Guardian: “I’ve never hacked a phone nor told anybody to hack a phone.”
Amendments to Harry’s legal claim also allege that the former News of the World editors Phil Hall and Bob Bird, and the former Sun editors Stuart Higgins and David Yelland, must also have known about the illegal targeting of Diana during the mid-1990s.
Harry has made clear that he blames the tabloid media for the death of his mother while being chased by paparazzi through Paris. On Tuesday, the high court heard his claim that press intrusion by the Sun and other newspapers led to her choosing to travel without a police escort in order to avoid leaks, ultimately leading to her death in 1997.
Harry suggests that Murdoch’s newspapers concealed their illegal activity, publicly criticising Diana’s “paranoid delusions” about being illegally targeted when in reality “she was under close surveillance and her calls were being unlawfully intercepted” by individuals working for the Sun and News of the World.
Harry also suggests Diana was punished by the newspapers for giving an interview to the BBC’s Panorama in 1995, rather than providing private information to the Sun or News of the World.
Harry previously told the court that he was personally the victim of widespread phone hacking and illegal activity by the Sun and News of the World, while claiming there was a secret deal between the royal household to keep such deals out of court.
Murdoch’s company has always denied any illegal behaviour took place at the Sun and is trying to block Harry’s legal claim on the basis he waited too long to file his legal paperwork.
