Prince Harry Grilled Over 'Boozy' Night at 'Sleazy Strip Joint' During Day Two Testimony of Phone-Hacking Trial
June 7 2023, Published 4:00 p.m. ET
Prince Harry was bombarded with a series of embarrassing questions related to a 2006 strip club visit while dating Chelsy Davy as he addressed the High Court in London on Wednesday in his phone-hacking trial against the Mirror Group Newspapers, RadarOnline.com has learned.
This marked the second day Harry, 38, took the stand — making him the first royal to testify in more than a century.
During cross-examination, MGN’s lawyer Andrew Green questioned the Duke of Sussex about a particular trip he made to the Spearmint Rhino strip club in Berkshire nearly 20 years ago, which appeared in MGN's publication Sunday People.
In the article, titled Chel Shocked, the outlet claimed Chelsy “blew her top" when she discovered the night out with his buddies.
“The article reports that Chelsy had ‘let rip in a string of phone calls’ and includes a comment from a ‘highly placed source’ that she had gone ‘berserk,’ had slammed the phone down because she was so angry, and then called back to scream at me for half an hour," Harry said in his witness statement.
“To the best of my recollection, I don’t think Chelsy did go [sic] mad about me going there," he continued. "We did speak over the phone, but I promised her that I hadn’t had a lap dance and stayed with the three other cadets that had girlfriends. The detail about the timing and length of the calls is so specific. With hindsight, it seems likely to me that the Defendant’s journalists had access to one of our phone records and put two and two together to make a story.”
On the stand, Harry questioned how the tabloid knew about any conversation, adding that he believed his ex would never speak to the press about their relationship.
"My girlfriend’s number was bizarrely in the hands of Mirror journalists. Very suspicious that they had her number […] I don't believe she would give any journalist her number," the embattled prince said in court.
Harry claimed MGN had Chelsy’s phone records, alleging that “most of the evidence has been destroyed.” Day two of his testimony centered mostly around his relationship with his ex-girlfriend.
He was also asked about a 2007 BBC article claiming he had “monumental” fights with Chelsy. The outlet attributed the information to a Palace source.
"I never discussed any details with the Palace about by relationship with my girlfriend, so attributing such information to a Palace source is incredibly suspicious," Harry responded, adding that he believed the BBC's “source” was actually information obtained through phone hacking — an allegation that Green said Harry's accusation was in the “land of total speculation about where this information might have come from.”
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As RadarOnline.com reported, Harry sued MGN for allegedly using unlawful information gathering, including hacking into his phone voicemails, using private investigators, between 1995 and 2011 while under the supervision of Piers Morgan.
Harry estimated that around 140 articles published by MGN between 1996 to 2010 contained information which was gathered by using unlawful methods.
MGN has denied all allegations.