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Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s 2020 in review
Prince Harry said to have been “personally affronted” by a story published by the Mail on Sunday which claimed he turned his back to the Royal Marines after stepping down as senior royal in late March 2020. Prince Harry said in papers filed at the High Court he has the “sincere ambition” to keep helping current and former military personnel using the platform he has gained as a result of his service in the Army.
However, this “substantially depends upon [Prince Harry] using his reputation”, the court documents claimed.
Any damage to his credibility, the papers also warned, could have an “adverse effect” on those he aims to support.
The Mail on Sunday, which published the article on October 25, has since sent the Duke a written apology over the claim he failed to maintain contact with the Marines.
Last month, it also published a retraction in print and online, in which it said it had made a donation to Prince Harry’s Invictus Games Foundation.
In the apology it published, the Mail on Sunday said that, contrary to the accusation made by a “top general” that the Duke had turned his back on the Royal Marines, it now understood he has been in touch since March “in a private capacity with individuals in the military including in the Royal Marines to offer informal support”.
Prince Harry said to have been ‘personally affronted’ by a story published in October 2020 – court documents (Image: GETTY)
Prince Harry served twice in Afghanistan (Image: GETTY)
It added a claim Harry had failed to reply to a letter from Lord Richard Dannatt, chief of the general staff between 2006 and 2009, was corrected as it emerged he had not initially received the letter and replied when made aware of it.
The court documents were filed in November, before the publication of the retraction, and were made public on Wednesday evening.
The court filing, seen by Newsweek, read: “The claimant has been personally affronted and caused huge damage to his reputation by reason of the publication of the words complained of.”
The documents also said: “[Prince Harry’s] sincere ambition is to continue to help current and former military personnel by using his reputation and the platform he has as a result of his military service.
“This role substantially depends upon the claimant using his reputation to help such causes by attracting public support for them.
READ MORE: Meghan Markle and Harry ‘skating on thin ice’ with royal titles
Prince Harry is the founder of the Invictus Games (Image: GETTY)
“The publication of the allegations complained of will seriously hamper his ability to do so and therefore have an adverse effect upon the people he is seeking to help.”
The papers added: “The claimant has, in particular, used his reputation to support and encourage current and former military personnel to seek help for mental health problems.
“The publications complained of will diminish the claimant’s credibility in the eyes of such personnel and therefore make them less likely to seek the help being offered.
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Prince Harry served in the Army for 10 years (Image: GETTY)
Prince Harry presenting the British team ahead of next Invictus Games (Image: GETTY)
“The claimant reasonably fears that this will in turn have devastating effects upon such individuals, including leaving them more susceptible to suicide.”
The documents also accused the Mail on Sunday of failing to give the Duke of Sussex’s representatives ample notice to respond to the story.
The Mail Online website put a request for comment later than 9pm and ran the article just after midnight, Newsweek reported.
The court filing said it is not known whether at the time the email was sent the story “had in fact already been published in those editions of the Mail on Sunday which had gone to print.”
Prince Harry was stripped of his honorary military titles after Megxit (Image: EXPRESS)
The Mail on Sunday is one of the British publications with which Prince Harry and his wife Meghan said in April would no longer engage.
In a letter sent to the editors of these newspapers at the time, the Sussexes said: “There will be no corroboration and zero engagement.
“This is also a policy being instated for their communications team, in order to protect that team from the side of the industry that readers never see.”
Contacted by Express.co.uk, the Mail on Sunday said it won’t comment.
Prince Harry, a veteran who has served for 10 years in the Army and taken part in two rounds in Afghanistan, is the founder of the Invictus Games.
Prince Harry meeting the Queen at Sandhurst in 2006 (Image: GETTY)
Over the past few years, Harry has also worked with the Ministry of Defence to create HeadFIT, a mental health platform designed to support military personnel, and has been a vocal supporter of introducing mental health training alongside the physical one for military personnel.
Prince Harry, who has been stripped of his honorary military titles after stepping down as senior royal, have also been spotted volunteering for veterans and at-risk communities in Compton in 2020.
Prince Harry’s court documents were made public as the Duchess of Sussex’s representatives are preparing for next week’s hearing on her lawsuit against the Mail on Sunday, which in February 2019 published extracts of her letter to Thomas Markle Snr.
Meghan is seeking damages for alleged misuse of private information, copyright infringement and breach of the Data Protection Act.
Associated Newspapers, the publisher of the MailOnline, Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday, wholly denies the allegations.
