Intimate details about Prince Harry’s relationship with his former girlfriend Chelsy Davy, including their “sleeping arrangements”, were obtained “unlawfully” by the Mail on Sunday, the High Court has heard.
An article published in January 2010 contained “granular detail” about their plans as a couple, and even Harry’s “preferences as to where he likes to spend the night”, the duke’s barrister David Sherborne said on Tuesday.
Other details published in the newspaper included how the Duke of Sussex had given his then on-and-off partner a “set of keys” while they navigated their long-distance relationship.
But Harry’s evidence is “absolutely firm”, and he insisted that only a close friend of his or Ms Davy’s would have known the private information and “would not possibly have betrayed their confidence”, Mr Sherborne added.
Harry, Sir Elton John, his husband David Furnish, campaigner Baroness Doreen Lawrence, politician Sir Simon Hughes, and actresses Sadie Frost and Liz Hurley are taking legal action against Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) over alleged unlawful information gathering.
ANL “vehemently” denies the “preposterous allegations”.
The article by Mail on Sunday journalist Katie Nicholl detailed “intimate and specific details” about Harry’s private life, Mr Sherborne said.
The story described how Ms Davy’s friends had said Harry was a regular fixture at her Belgravia home before she left the UK for Christmas.
The court heard that Ms Nicholl’s evidence was that her notebooks indicated she obtained the “minute details” from a man named Garth Gibbs.
Mr Sherborne said that South African-born Mr Gibbs, who died a year after the article was published, was not “a member of the royal family” nor “some young aristocratic socialite”. Instead, he was living alone in semi-retirement on the Isle of Wight, with his cat, called Lord Kismul of Barra, aka Kizzy, as his sole companion.
The barrister added that it was “utterly implausible that this person would have supplied that level of information about the Duke of Sussex and Ms Chelsy Davy”.
He suggested Ms Nicholl was applying her “familiar unlawful information gathering” techniques.
Summarising part of the duke’s written evidence, Mr Sherborne said that Harry had detailed the “distress” and “paranoia” he had been caused.
He continued: “But given what we’ve seen, is it any wonder that he feels that way, or as he explains, that he feels he has endured a sustained campaign of attacks against him for having had the temerity to stand up to Associated in the way that he has so publicly done?”
ANL said disclosures to the press about Harry’s private life were “a not uncommon occurrence”.
The publisher’s lawyer, Antony White KC, told the court in written submissions: “The reality is that the social circles of the celebrity claimants, ie all the claimants bar Baroness (Doreen) Lawrence and Sir Simon Hughes, were ‘leaky’ and their friends, and friends of friends, or associates, did regularly provide information to the press about the claimants’ private lives, for obvious reasons on a confidential basis.”
ANL’s written submission claims that Ms Nicholl was passed the information from Mr Gibbs from a source in South Africa who was “good friends” with Ms Davy, as well as being one of her Facebook friends.
“She would also likely have run the story past some of her other confidential sources on the Duke of Sussex and Ms Davy to confirm whether it was true and to pick up any other details,” Mr White said.
On Tuesday, Mr White told the court that journalists at the organisation provide a “compelling account of a pattern of legitimate sourcing of articles”.
At the start of his opening submissions, he said: “Associated, the defendant, defends these claims on two main grounds: firstly, on the merits and secondly on limitation grounds.
“Associated has provided an explanation through a long series of witnesses of the sourcing by its journalists of the 50-plus articles alleged by the claimants to be the product of unlawful information gathering.
“We don’t pretend that that account is perfect and covers every detail, and not every journalist can remember every article, but we do say that overall, it provides a compelling account of a pattern of legitimate sourcing of articles.”
Zimbabwean-born Ms Davy dated Prince Harry for about seven years, with their relationship continuing while he was training in the Army and overseas, and while she was at university in South Africa.
They split in early 2009 but, after both reportedly had other flings, they rekindled their relationship, and in May 2010, Ms Davy made a rare public appearance to watch him receive his wings after completing his Army Air Corps helicopter pilot course.
They broke up again in about 2011 but remained friends and she attended his wedding to the Duchess of Sussex in 2018.
