Prince Harry claims the press turned his Chelsy Davy breakup "into a bit of a laugh"

He's currently making his case against Mirror Group Newspapers

Prince Harry
(Image credit: Max Mumby / Indigo / Getty)

Prince Harry is currently in the midst of his court case against Mirror Group Newspapers, in which he alleges that the publisher used unlawful means to gather private information about him over a number of years.

The Duke of Sussex was in London this week to make his case in person, and as part of the trial has cited some of the articles which he believes used unlawfully gathered information.

Among these articles was one from the Sunday Mirror in 2007, which was titled, "Hooray Harry’s Dumped." This article came in the aftermath of Harry's split from ex-girlfriend, Chelsy Davy.

Speaking about this article in court, Harry expressed that he felt articles like this one had made light of what was a difficult time for him.

"Such a private moment was turned into a bit of a laugh," he said (via the Evening Standard).

"The headline does seem to suggest people celebrating that I had broken up with my girlfriend, which seems a little bit mean."

The Duke, who has said he suspects his and Chelsy's phones were tapped, also said: "I’m not sure how anyone would know we had broken up because we weren’t talking about that."

However, MGN barrister Andrew Green countered that 'Hooray Harry' was a nickname, and that the headline didn't imply, 'hooray, Harry has been dumped.' But Harry insisted that the article was in fact 'celebrating' the breakup.

"If it had been used before or not, for me as the subject or victim of this, to see that word used in this term is hurtful," the royal said of the nickname.

As well as this case against the Mirror publishers, Prince Harry is currently involved in a lawsuit against another tabloid publisher, Associated Newspapers, who publish the Daily Mail.

The Prince launched action against the publisher alongside other big names including Elton John and Elizabeth Hurley, all of whom are accusing Associated of invasion of privacy. 

ANL denies the allegations. 

Iris Goldsztajn
Iris Goldsztajn is a celebrity and royal news writer for Marie Claire. As a London-based freelance journalist, she writes about wellness, relationships, pop culture, beauty and more for the likes of InStyle, Women's Health, Bustle, Stylist and Red. Aside from her quasi-personal investment in celebs' comings and goings, Iris is especially interested in debunking diet culture and destigmatising mental health struggles. Previously, she was the associate editor for Her Campus, where she oversaw the style and beauty news sections, as well as producing gift guides, personal essays and celebrity interviews. There, she worked remotely from Los Angeles, after returning from a three-month stint as an editorial intern for Cosmopolitan.com in New York. As an undergraduate at the University of California, Los Angeles, she interned at goop and C California Style and served as Her Campus' national style and LGBTQ+ editor. Iris was born and raised in France by a French father and an English mother. Her Spotify Wrapped is riddled with country music and One Direction, and she can typically be found eating her body weight in cheap chocolate.