Judge Orders Prince Harry to Explain “Troubling Evidence” of “Destroyed” Messages Sent to Memoir Ghostwriter
The Duke of Sussex is in the middle of a lawsuit against the publishers of a British tabloid.
A judge is ordering Prince Harry to explain himself after revealing “troubling evidence” that suggests the Duke of Sussex allegedly destroyed documents and messages involving his bombshell memoir Spare.
On Thursday, June 27, attorney Anthony Hudson—representing News Group Newspapers (NGN), the publisher of the British tabloid The Sun—alleged in court that Prince Harry successfully “deleted drafts of his 2023 memoir, Spare, as well as messages with the book’s ghostwriter, J.R. Moehringer,” People reports.
In response, Justice Fancourt—who is presiding over the trial as part of Prince Harry’s lawsuit against the publisher—said he’s seen “troubling evidence that a large number of potentially relevant documents and confidential messages between the Duke and the ghostwriter of Spare were destroyed sometime between 2021 and 2023, well after this claim was underway,” according to The Telegraph.
Currently, the Duke of Sussex is involved in four separate lawsuits against newspaper publishers in the U.K. People reports. Prince Harry is accusing NGN journalists and investigators of illegally invading his privacy between 1994 and 2016.
Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex (wearing a Household Division regimental tie and medals including his Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order cross) attends The Invictus Games Foundation 10th Anniversary Service at St Paul’s Cathedral on May 8, 2024 in London, England.
Judge Fancourt went on to say that the lack of documentation was “rather remarkable” and gave the Court “cause for concern,” The Telegraph reported.
“[It] was not transparently clear about what happened,” the judge reportedly continued, before asking Prince Harry to produce a witness statement explaining “what happened to the messages between himself and his ghostwriter and whether any attempts were made to retrieve them.”
According to court documents obtained by People, Prince Harry responded to the allegations via his lawyer David Sherborne, who described NGN’s accusations as a “transparent, old-fashioned fishing expedition.”
"NGN's tactical and sluggish approach to disclosure wholly undermines the deliberately sensational assertion that [the Duke of Sussex] has not properly carried out the disclosure exercise," Sherborne said in the same court documents obtained by the publication. "This is untrue. In fact, the Claimant has already made clear that he has conducted extensive searches, going above and beyond his obligations."
Britain's Prince Charles, Prince of Wales (2nd L), Britain's Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex (3rd L), Britain's Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall (3rd R), Britain's Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge (2nd R) and Britain's Meghan, Duchess of Sussex (R) depart Westminster Abbey after attending the annual Commonwealth Service.
In March 2024, the Duke of Sussex accused NGN of illegally intercepting "calls of his late mother, Princess Diana, and father, now King Charles III" as part of his privacy lawsuit, the Associated Press reported at the time.
Prince Harry's attorney claimed the publication's alleged "eavesdropping" between Princess Diana, Charles, and now Queen Camilla "inevitably revealed private information about Harry as early as age 9," adding in an amended complaint that Princess Diana "was suspicious she as being followed and her calls were being listened to," the Associated Press reports.
In 2023, Prince Harry took the witness stand as part of his lawsuit against the publisher of the Daily Mirror. During his testimony, the Duke of Sussex said he has "experienced hostility from the press since I was born.”
“It isn’t a specific article, it is all of the articles,” he said at the time. “Every single article has caused me distress.”