Prince Harry whined about a “hurtful” headline that seemingly celebrated his breakup with Chelsy Davy, as he continued his second day of testimony in his ongoing lawsuit against the Daily Mirror on Wednesday.
During his second day of questioning by Andrew Green, who is representing the defense, the Duke of Sussex took issue with a Nov. 2007 Sunday Mirror article titled “Hooray Harry dumped,” which detailed the breakdown of his romance with Davy, according to SkyNews.
“[The headline was] hurtful to say the least,” Harry, 38, told Green in the London courtroom.
“Such a private moment was turned into a bit of a laugh.”
In his witness statement, the ginger-haired royal also took issue with the article’s reporting on an outing at Amika nightclub in the Mayfair neighborhood of London.
“I did go to this particular nightclub…on a few occasions, but as I have said previously, my movements were never intended to be public knowledge. They were intentionally kept confidential for security reasons, so how did they know?” he asked.
Harry – who is now based in California with his wife Meghan Markle and two children – is suing the Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) for damages on the grounds that its reporters allegedly used phone hacking and other unethical means to obtain information about him.
He reiterated on the stand that the information in the article about his nightclub antics seemed “suspicious” to him.
Green, however, pointed out that a similar article appeared the same day on the cover of News of the World.
The attorney also argued that the “Hooray Harry dumped” headline was not mocking the breakup, but was a spin on the then-23-year-old prince’s hard-partying ways.
“If you look at the article, it said that she [Davy] had got tired of your ‘hooray’ lifestyle,” Green said, according to CNN.
Green pushed back on Harry’s implication that MGN reporters used phone hacking to uncover the details of the breakup, and noted that Davy changed her Facebook status to “not in a relationship” around the time of both stories.
“If indeed that was what happened. I doubt she did that at that time, my lord,” Harry replied.
Prince Harry and Davy, now 37, met in 2004 and dated on and off until around 2010.
During his first day on the stand Tuesday, Harry blamed the press’ prying eyes for the demise of the relationship.
“This is a past girlfriend who now has her own family and this process is as distressing for her as it is for me,” he added on Wednesday.
Davy married hotelier Sam Cutmore-Scott in early 2022, and gave birth to their son, Leo, several months later.
At one point during the proceedings Wednesday, Green had to remind Harry of his position during the testimony.
“Can I just repeat this isn’t about you asking me questions, it’s about me asking you questions,” the defense counsel snapped when the prince pushed back on his assertion that a 2008 article about his military service was “a matter of legitimate public interest.”
Prince Harry – who left the royal family alongside Meghan, 41, in 2020 – is expected to spend most of Wednesday on the stand.
He arrived at court for the first time on Tuesday after missing the trial’s opening on Monday. He was reportedly celebrating his daughter, Princess Lilibet’s, second birthday before flying to the UK.
