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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
Lifestyle
Thomas Kingsley and Andy Gregory

Prince Harry – latest news: Duke ‘lost friends’ over Mail stories, as Elton John’s ‘landline was tapped’

PA/Reuters
Prince Harry arrives at High Court for phone-tapping and privacy case

The Duke of Sussex lost friends due to “paranoia” over “unlawful” stories published about him in the papers, the High Court has heard.

Sir Elton John and actor Sadie Frost were among those in court alongside Prince Harry on the first day of their High Court challenge over Associated Newspapers Ltd’s (ANL) allegedly unlawful activity at its titles, which included the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday.

The court heard on Monday that Prince Harry had lost or “cut off” friends as “everyone became a ‘suspect’, since he was misled by the way that the articles were written into believing that those close to him were the source” of articles about him.

The lawyer for the group, also including actor Liz Hurley and Baroness Doreen Lawrence, told the judge that Sir Elton‘s landline had been tapped, and that the publisher had “unlawfully” obtained a copy of he and David Furnish’s first child before the couple had even seen it themselves.

The publisher has previously described the group’s allegations as “preposterous smears.”

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