WATCH: Prince Harry Reveals Major Cause of Royal Rift

Prince Harry discussed the royal rift between him and his family for the first time since his book and acknowledged his “determination to fight the tabloids” was a contributing factor.   The Duke of Sussex repeatedly commented on the breakdown in relations from his March 2021 Oprah Winfrey interview until his January 2023 memoir Spare and the publicity around it.

However, he had not returned to the subject since March 2023, marking 16 months of silence, until tackling the issue afresh in a documentary, Tabloids on Trial, about phone hacking cases that he and other celebrities have brought against the British press.

ITV journalist Rebecca Barry asked: “To what extent do you think your determination to fight the tabloids destroyed the relationship with your family?”  Harry replied: “Yeah, that’s certainly a central piece to it but… it’s a hard question to answer because anything I say about my family results in a torrent of abuse from the press.

“I’ve made it clear that this is something that needs to be done. It would be nice if we did it as a family.  “I believe from a service standpoint, and when you’re in a public role, these are the things you should be doing for the greater good, but I’m doing this for my reasons.

“I think everything that’s played out has shown people what the truth of the matter is,” he continued. “For me, the mission continues. But yes, it’s caused as you say part of a rift.”  Harry described in his book Spare how he asked his family for help dealing with the media but King Charles III told him not to read the papers.

Prince Harry tells @BeccaBarry his legal fight with the tabloids is a “central piece” in the breakdown of his relationship with his family.

In an ITV1 documentary, Tabloids on Trial, the Duke of Sussex says in a “public role these are the things that we should be doing for the… pic.twitter.com/D396ue6DH4

— ITV News (@itvnews) July 24, 2024

“Not knowing where else to turn,” Harry wrote, “I phoned Pa. ‘Don’t read it, darling boy.’  “It’s not that simple, I said angrily. I might lose this woman. She might either decide I’m not worth the bother, or the press might so poison the public that some idiot might do something bad, harm her in some way.

“It was already happening in slow motion. Death threats. Her workplace on lockdown because someone, reacting to what they’d read, had made a credible threat.”  “He said I was overreacting,” Harry continued. “This is sadly just the way it is.”  After Harry and Meghan got engaged, Harry began using the upcoming wedding in an effort to exert pressure on Rupert Murdoch’s U.K. media empire to issue him with an apology or face being banned from the Windsor Castle ceremony.

In a witness statement to the High Court, Harry said: “Given the level of abuse that she had suffered by that stage, by doing nothing other than being my partner, I was understandably upset and protective of my wife-to-be, especially when I heard that the main culprits of this abuse from these tabloid newspapers would be invited to our wedding.

“How could they be permitted to have a ringside seat and then sell millions of newspapers and clicks on the back of it, when all they have sought to do is destroy our relationship, destroy my wife with their endless lies while giving a platform to her abusers, when most of these ‘journalists’ knew the truth anyway because of the illegal methods they had used to dig into her past?

“I remember speaking to my brother and saying something along the lines of ‘Enough of this, I want to get permission to push for a resolution to our phone hacking claims and a formal apology from Murdoch before any of his people are allowed anywhere near the wedding.'”

There were negotiations between the palace and News Group Newspapers [NGN], though Harry became frustrated when the publisher did not budge, writing heated messages to staff: “I can’t begin to tell you what it will say about the institution if this isn’t resolved before the baby arrival and wedding. If it isn’t resolved, should the Queen be allowing them to Windsor on May 19th [Harry and Meghan’s wedding location and date]? They have NO excuse for not getting this sorted.”

Harry’s battle with NGN remains ongoing, though the phone hacking element of his claim has been thrown out leaving him fighting on in relation to other allegations of unlawful methods.  He won a case against Mirror Group Newspapers and has another outstanding against Associated Newspapers, publisher of the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday and MailOnline.

“This is a David versus Goliath situation,” says Harry. “The Davids are the claimants, and the Goliath is this vast media enterprise. I’m trying to get justice for everybody.”   Tabloids on Trial will be broadcast in the U.K. on network ITV at 9 p.m. U.K. time, or 4 p.m. on the East Coast.