Prince Harry admits tabloid lawsuits are a 'central piece' in rift with royal family

Prince Harry believes his legal battles with Britain's tabloids have contributed to the breakdown of his relationship with the royal family.

"It's certainly a central piece to it," Harry says in an interview clip shared Wednesday from the upcoming documentary "Tabloids on Trial." "That's a hard question to answer because anything I say about my family results in a torrent of abuse from the press."

The Duke of Sussex continued, "I've made it very clear that this is something that needs to be done. It would be nice if we did it as a family. I believe that, again, from a service standpoint and when you're in a public role that these are the things we should be doing for the greater good. But I'm doing this for my reasons."

"For me, the mission continues," he told ITV News journalist Rebecca Barry. "But it has, yes. It's caused, as you say, part of a rift."

The one-hour special airs Thursday night in the U.K. on ITV1 and ITVX.

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Prince Harry is currently suing Rupert Murdoch's U.K. newspaper arm, News Group Newspapers, and the publisher of the Daily Mail in two separate lawsuits, alleging unlawful activities by journalists and private investigators over several years.

Both publishers deny the allegations and are fighting the lawsuits, which are being brought by Harry and others, including Elton John and actors Elizabeth Hurley and Sadie Frost.

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Harry has brought several lawsuits against British media organizations as part of his "mission" to purge executives and editors whom he accuses of spreading lies and intruding into people's lives.

In December 2023, Harry – who is King Charles' younger son – won his phone hacking lawsuit against the Daily Mail's publisher and was awarded more than $180,000 in damages. The judge agreed that private information about the duke published in a number of Mirror Group articles was unlawfully obtained.

The prince blames British media for the death of his mother Princess Diana in a 1997 car crash. He has accused U.K. newspapers of hostile and racist attacks on his American wife Meghan, which were cited as a factor in their decision to quit royal duties and move to California in March 2020.

In 2011, the Leveson Inquiry investigated the ethics of newsgathering at British news publications after staff at Rupert Murdoch's since-shuttered tabloid, News of the World, were found to have hacked into phone's voicemails and bribed police in their reporting on celebrities and civilians, including a schoolgirl who was murdered.

Contributing: Sam Tobin, Reuters; KiMi Robinson, USA TODAY