Prince Harry gets his day in court: What to expect when he testifies in phone-hacking case

LONDON −Prince Harry is going where other British royals haven't for more than a century: to a courtroom witness stand.

The Duke of Sussex is set to testify in the first of his five pending legal cases largely centered around battles with British tabloids. Opening statements are scheduled Monday in his case.

Harry said in court documents that the royal family had assiduously avoided the courts to prevent testifying about matters that might be embarrassing.

His frustration and anger at the press, however, impelled him to buck convention by suing newspaper owners.

If Harry testifies as scheduled Tuesday in his lawsuit against the publisher of the Daily Mirror, he'll be the first member of the royal family to do so since the late 19th century, when Queen Victoria's eldest son, Prince Albert Edward, testified twice in court.

The man who would go on to become King Edward VII testified in the divorce proceedings of a woman he was accused of having an affair with (he denied it) and in a slander case involving a man who cheated at cards. Edward VII was the great-grandfather of Queen Elizabeth II, Harry's grandmother.

From phone hacking to aerial photos:What to know about all of Prince Harry's lawsuits

What is Prince Harry's history with phone hacking and paparazzi?

The Daily Mirror case is one of three Harry has brought alleging phone hacking and other invasions of his privacy, dating back to when he was a boy.

In court documents, he described his relationship with the press as "uneasy" in court documents, but it runs much deeper than that. The prince blames paparazzi for causing the car crash that killed his mother, the late Princess Diana

He also cites harassment and intrusion by the British press and "vicious, persistent attacks" on his wife, Meghan, including racist articles, as the reason the couple left royal life and fled to the U.S. in 2020.

News that British journalists hacked phones for scoops first emerged in 2006 with the arrest of a private investigator and the royals reporter at the now-defunct News of the World. The two were jailed, and the reporter apologized for hacking phones used by aides of Harry, his older brother, Prince William, and their father.

Here's what to know:What actually happened during Prince Harry and Meghan's 'car chase'?

Who is Harry suing?

The duke is taking on three of Britain's best-known tabloid publishers.

In addition to Mirror Group Newspapers, he is suing Murdoch's News Group Newspapers, publisher of The Sun, and Associated Newspapers Ltd., which owns the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday.

The claims are similar: that journalists and people they employed listened to phone messages and committed other unlawful acts to snoop on Harry and invade his privacy.

What's the case against the Mirror Group about?

At the outset of the proceedings, Mirror Group appeared to fall on its sword, acknowledging instances when its newspapers unlawfully gathered information. It apologized in court papers and said Harry was due compensation.

But the admission involving Harry − the hiring of a private eye to dig up unspecified dirt for an article about his nightclubbing − wasn't among the nearly 150 articles between 1995 and 2011 for which he claimed Mirror Group reporters used phone hacking and other illegal methods to gather material. The trial is focusing on 33 of those stories.

Harry's lawyer, David Sherborne, said unlawful acts by reporters and editors at the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and Sunday People were "widespread and habitual" and carried out on "an industrial scale." He pointed the finger at management, in particular TV personality Piers Morgan, a former Daily Mirror editor.

Morgan has publicly denied involvement in phone hacking, as has Mirror Group in its court submissions.

Mirror lawyer Andrew Green said a substantial proportion of the articles at issue involved a "breathtaking level of triviality" and that with the exception of a few instances of unlawful information gathering, the company's reporters had used public records and sources to legally obtain information.

The trial is a test case involving four claimants, including two members of Britain's longest-running soap opera, "Coronation Street." But the verdict could determine the outcome of hacking claims also made against Mirror Group by the estate of the late singer George Michael, former Girls Aloud member Cheryl and former soccer player Ian Wright.

The case is broken into two parts: a generic case that lasted nearly three weeks in which Harry's lawyer laid out evidence of alleged skullduggery at the newspapers; the second part, starting Monday, with the four claimants testifying about specific acts targeting them.