Prince Harry Sits Down for Documentary to Speak About His Mission to Continue His Fight Against the U.K.'s Tabloid Press
Harry is expected to discuss the phone hacking scandal he was involved in alongside other celebrities like Hugh Grant in ‘Tabloids on Trial,’ out later this month on ITV.
Just as Prince William announced a documentary of his own earlier this week—his about eradicating homelessness—Prince Harry, too, will take part in a forthcoming documentary, his about the phone hacking scandal that he took to court, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Hugh Grant will also participate in the ITV documentary Tabloids on Trial, which focuses “on ongoing legal battles and involvement in the phone hacking scandal,” the outlet writes.
Harry, seen here heading into High Court in the U.K.
Harry alleged that he was targeted by journalists and private investigators working for News Group Newspapers (NGN) titles The Sun and the now-defunct News of the World, which closed back in 2011. That same year, news broke that some of Britain’s biggest celebrities—like Harry and Grant—were allegedly victims of a scandal in which “the media’s top newspapers were tapping landlines and fitting properties with listening devices in the name of journalism,” The Hollywood Reporter writes. “NGN has denied any illegal activity took place at The Sun.”
In December, Justice Timothy Fancourt ruled in Harry’s favor against Mirror Group Newspapers in a 386-page decision handed down in the High Court. He said that phone hacking–which, for Harry, went all the way back as far as 2003—was “widespread and habitual” at The Daily Mirror, and that executives there had covered it up.
“Our mission continues,” Harry’s lawyer, David Sherborne, said in a statement on behalf of Harry outside court after the victory, per Hello. “I believe in the positive change it will bring for all of us. It is the very reason why I started this, and why I will continue to see it through to the end.”
Harry won a "substantial sum" earlier this year after a judge ruled in his favor in December.
According to The Daily Beast, Harry settled for a “substantial sum” earlier this year after receiving a $160,000 award for The Daily Mirror’s hacking by its journalists between 2006 to 2011. ITV’s Chris Ship, per The Daily Beast, said that in the documentary Harry would explain why he “is fighting to expose what he says are the illegal activities of Britain’s tabloid newspapers.”
In addition to Harry and Grant, former soccer player Paul Gascoigne and singer Charlotte Church will also be featured in the upcoming documentary, and ITV News’ Rebecca Barry will sit down with Harry—who, in The Hollywood Reporter’s words, “has broken from royal tradition with the immense legal action”—for Harry’s first major interview since the legal action commenced.
Grant is also expected to take part in the ITV documentary, out July 25.
Tabloids on Trial—which “hears about his mission to continue his fight to expose the illegal tactics of Britain’s tabloid press, and explore what those in charge at Fleet Street really knew as this scandal unfolded,” according to a press release from ITV—will air on the network on Thursday, July 25.
