Prince Harry’s Latest Legal Move Could Widen Rift Between Him And William

Recent reports indicate that Harry has dragged late Queen Elizabeth II‘s most senior courtiers into his phone hacking court case.

This new development has now sparked concerns that the divide between Prince Harry and the royal family could deepen.

Harry is seemingly sparing no one in his quest to get justice concerning an alleged phone hacking event he suffered at the hands of the Mirror Group Newspapers.

According to the Daily Mail, a judge backed his bid to see emails to and from Lord Christopher Geidt, private secretary to Queen Elizabeth II until 2017, and his successor, Sir Edward Young.

Harry’s attorneys claim Geidt and Young held high-level talks with newspaper executives in 2017 about receiving compensation and apologies “to the entire Royal household, including the Queen” for “unlawful information gathering.”

According to the news outlet, the duke had previously claimed his estranged brother Prince William received compensation from the newspaper while he was sidelined from a “secret” deal.

Harry’s lawyers also told the court that his pain in all of this was that the royal family tried to discourage him from airing out his case, saying his father and the royal family’s law firm, Harbottle & Lewis, “acted to discourage and stymie him in the bringing of his claim.”

The move could further deteriorate Harry’s already sour relationship with William and King Charles III.

Harry’s lawyer, David Sherborne, further pressed his case that Her Majesty was instrumental in the whole thing as emails showed she approved threatening the publishers with legal action if it didn’t respond.

An email between the warring brothers in that year also surfaced, in which Harry urged William and palace aides to support “chasing up” News UK, publishers of The Sun.

Harry said, “It has been a year since this started,” and that the publisher was “playing us” with its alleged lack of response. In a reference to his brother, he wrote, “W, do you agree?”

The publisher has also disclosed email correspondence between palace officials and senior executives at News UK, including Rebekah Brooks and Robert Thomson, who served as chief executives.

The duke’s lawyer, Sherborne, said, “They are significant. Here, they are saying they will consider apologizing 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.”

He, however, noted that the email exchange was “not complete,” and there were other emails that Harry hadn’t seen yet, requesting the court to order the publisher to conduct further searches of its email database for its messages with the palace courtiers.

Anthony Hudson KC, for the publisher, said requesting further searches so close to the trial date would be “disproportionate, time-consuming and costly.”

However, the judge upheld Harry’s request, ordering the newspaper to search for further messages.

Back in February, Sherborne disclosed that the former working royal was set to get a “substantial” payout in settlements for damages caused by the phone hacking incident.

Sherborne told the court that MGN, which publishes the British tabloid The Daily Mirror, will pay Harry “a substantial additional sum by way of damages” as well as cover his legal costs.

A judge had earlier ruled that the Montecito-based royal was the victim of phone hacking and other means of “unlawful information gathering” by MGN, awarding him a whooping £140,600 ($177,000) in damages.

“Everything we said was happening at Mirror Group was in fact happening, and indeed far worse, as the court ruled in its extremely damaging judgment,” Harry said in a statement at the time, per CNN.

“As the judge has said this morning, we have uncovered and proved the shockingly dishonest way the Mirror Group acted for many years and then sought to conceal the truth,” he added.

As Harry and his wife Meghan continue to live as non-working royals, the Duchess of Sussex reportedly longs for her husband to be free from the courtroom drama that has trailed him.

Aside from the phone hacking case, the duke has also been fighting for the Home Office to reinstate his tax-funded police protection for his family after they were stripped of it when they left their royal duties in 2020.

However, according to an ex-employee of the couple’s Archewell Foundation, the former “Suits” actress “supports Harry 100 percent, but she wishes he could let go of these lawsuits, be happy, and live in the moment.”

“She wants him to be free of all of this, but she also knows that because of everything he’s been through and his love for [her and their children], he can’t. She wants him to live in a world where he is not burdened by this,” the source told People magazine.

Meanwhile, calls continue to mount for Harry’s immigration documents to be made public.

Harry and Meghan relocated to the country following their resignation from their working royal roles in 2020 but nothing is known about what type of visa he’s using to stay in the country.

According to the Daily Mail, calls for his immigration details to be released gained steam in 2023 after he revealed in his memoir “Spare” that he’d usually use various drugs recreationally, information he’ll be required to disclose in his immigration documents.

A right-wing think tank, The Heritage Foundation’s Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, has now shared that there’s a “strong possibility” that the details will be released sometime soon due to Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 election.

“I do think there’s a strong possibility that this could happen. It’s the president’s prerogative,” said the Director of the group, Nile Gardiner. “Also, the new Homeland Security Secretary could order a review of Harry’s immigration application.”

“There are multiple things that could happen but it would be in the best interests of the American people if the Trump administration releases Prince Harry’s records for public scrutiny and Harry should be held to account,” Gardiner added.