Prince Harry’s confession about Lady Diana’s death and his marriage to Meghan: “I was conditioned to accept it”

Prince Harry’s battle with the press is well known, particularly since his teenage years, when his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, died almost three decades ago in a car crash in the Paris tunnel near the Pont de l’Alma while traveling with her then partner, the millionaire heir Dodi Al-Fayed.

During that journey through the French capital, in a Mercedes owned by the Harrods proprietor, the Princess of Wales was being pursued by journalists and photographers. This led many to blame reporters for the tragedy, which, according to the official investigation, was in fact caused by excessive speed on the part of the driver, who had also been drinking shortly before getting behind the wheel.

The younger of her two sons belongs to the group of people who believe the press played a role in the death of the “people’s princess,” a conviction that only deepened as he grew older and tabloids published increasingly detailed reports about his private life.

As a result of his lawsuit – brought alongside other public figures such as the singer Elton John and his husband – against the publisher of the Daily Mail, in a case accusing the tabloid of illegally obtaining information about his private life, his testimony has shed light on his long-standing concerns. “After my mother’s death in 1997, when I was 12 years old, and given the way she was treated by the press, I have always had a difficult relationship with the media,” reads the statement transcribed by the BBC.

“However, as a member of the institution, the policy was ‘never complain, never explain.’ I had no choice; I was conditioned to accept it. In general, I accepted the interest generated by carrying out my public duties,” he adds.

Marriage to Meghan Markle

For Prince Harry, the worst came when he began his love story with the former US actress Meghan Markle, with whom, shortly after marrying and having their first child, he decided to step back from royal duties. “At the end of 2016, when my relationship with Meghan, now my wife, became public, I began to worry more and more about the lack of action against the press in the face of vicious and persistent attacks, harassment, and intrusive – sometimes racist – articles about Meghan.”

Even before that, he says he was already astonished by the sheer “level of detail” in earlier reporting on his life, such as a 2005 article about his relationship with his then partner, Chelsy Davy. According to his testimony, this pushed him toward paranoia and led him to believe that the media wanted to encourage him to consume drugs and alcohol in order to sell more copies.

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