Prince Harry was awarded $250,000 in damages in his phone-hacking case against a British tabloid in December, hailing it “a great day for truth”. But just over six months on from his win, the royal has been accused of “deliberately destroying” evidence in the latest round of the bombshell court case!
Now, speculation is mounting that deleted text messages between Prince Harry and Spare ghostwriter JR Moehringer could relate to unflattering messages about his family. And they may not paint the royal in such a favourable light!
THE ‘MISSING’ EVIDENCE
“Whether or not Harry purposefully deleted the texts is to be decided. But it’s also raised questions about what Harry might have said and why he might not want them to be aired publicly,” spills a royal insider.
“Harry hinted at a string of confronting texts between himself and his brother Prince William during his Netflix show. And while he has been at pains to paint William as a bully in his memoir and his TV show, he hasn’t revealed what kind of messages he might have been sending to receive such strong responses from his brother.”
Prince Harry, 39, has been battling for years with the publishers of Britain’s biggest tabloids over allegations they hacked his phone and hired private investigators to dig up dirt on him, with the trial expected to start in January 2025.
But last week, during a one-day hearing brought by News Group Newspapers in order to help gain access to documents, emails and messages related to Harry’s claim, a judge ordered the royal to explain why messages on the Signal messaging app, that could be relevant to the case, had been deleted.
Justice Timothy Fancourt said there was evidence that “a large number of potentially relevant documents” and “confidential messages” between Harry and JR Moehringer “were destroyed some time between 2021 and 2023, well after this claim was underway”.
Although Harry’s lawyer has deflected the allegations, saying it was a “fishing expedition”, an insider says the whole court ordeal has left the royal – and his wife, Duchess Meghan – feeling rattled.
LIVING NIGHTMARE
“The panic in Montecito is real and Harry’s been getting an earful over his carelessness, not just from Meghan either,” the source explains. “He’s beginning to seriously regret going ahead with this case. He’s not used to lawsuits and keeping records – he has no idea about any of these things.”
As for the phone-hacking case, Harry has been ordered to disclose how drafts of his book and messages with his ghostwriter disappeared. His legal team must also write to staff of his father, King Charles, asking them for all records of communication with Harry. The judge ordered that a wider search was required of Prince Harry’s laptop, text and WhatsApp messages to look at exchanges from 2005 until nearly 2023.
“Aside from all the communications with the King and especially his brother, which are believed to be particularly nasty, there are the messages between him and Meghan, from their intimate messages to the more tense ones any couple has. Harry knows how easy it is for things to be misconstrued and he would hate for the contents of his messages to be made public,” reveals the insider.
“He worries if they are, any chance of him and Meghan redeeming themselves in the public eye – especially if there are attacks on Kate in there – would be non-existent.”
