Prince Harry has claimed that Meghan Markle was “unlawfully targeted” by private investigators.
During the second day of a three-day hearing, Harry’s lawyers told the High Court that an investigator provided information in 2016 for two stories on Meghan Markle.
The stories were published when Prince Harry and Meghan began publicly dating.
Harry’s lawyers alleged that the company the duke is suing, News Group Newspapers (NGN), paid private investigators to hack into landline calls relating to the prince.
A court hears Meghan Markle was targeted by private investigators
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Prince Harry and more than 40 others are suing NGN over accusations of unlawful invasions of privacy by The Sun and the now-defunct News of the World.
It comes as Harry’s legal team also asked a High Court Judge to extend the dates of his hacking claim to include allegations from 1994 to 2016.
At the moment, the current pleading starts in 1996 and ends in 2011.
The News Group Newspapers, which own The Sun and News of the World, have denied any wrongdoing and a trial is set for January 2025.
Prince Harry has multiple court cases with the British tabloidsReutersBarrister Anthony Hudson KC said in a written outline of NGN’s defence that it was “wholly inappropriate” of Harry to make new claims.
The new claims are said to include wrongdoings by NGN such as interception of voicemail messages left on landlines and mobiles, as well as listening into live mobile phone conversations.
In 2021, Danno Hanks a US private investigator, told the BBC that he obtained private information about Meghan Markle for The Sun.
These details included her social security number, mobile phone number and a portfolio of facts about her life.
Prince Harry has expanded the scope of his claimsGettyThe Sun has denied the claim and said that at no time did they ask Hanks for Meghan’s social security number and only requested legitimate research.
Legal documents in the case say that The Sun used information provided by Hanks for stories about Meghan and Harry.
One of these stories reported that the prince was “smitten” by Meghan and bombarded her with text messages.
The High Court was told: "On 31 October and 1 November 2016, The Sun published two articles by Emily Andrews and James Beal concerning the claimant's relationship with Meghan Markle.
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The two stories in question are from when Prince Harry and Meghan started dating in 2016
Getty"The claimant will contend that in late October 2016 the Defendant (through the journalist, James Beal) instructed an American private investigator, Danno Hanks... to obtain private information in the form of a report on the claimant's new relationship with his now wife.
"It can be inferred that the mobile number of the duchess obtained by Mr Hanks ... was then used to obtain private information about the frequency of text messages between the Claimant and the duchess."
Hudson rebutted this claim saying that the allegation from 2016 could not be considered as it was a New York-based journalist who allegedly hired a private detector to carry out work in the US.
Therefore, the wrongdoing cannot be examined by a British court as it occurred in the United States.