Prince Harry has not only breached the privacy of his family members but also significantly undermined his own future right to privacy.
Leaked details from his book Spare, first revealed in an impressive scoop for The Guardian, show that Harry has opened the lid on numerous private conversations with close family members. He’s also written in depth about everything from his health and drug taking to how he lost his virginity.
It all leaves very little off-limits when it comes to future press coverage of Harry’s private life.
[Read more: IPSO chair Lord Faulks on Harry book and press coverage of royals]
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The royal appears to believe that only one version of his life should enter the public record, his own. But journalists can’t just be stenographers for Harry and Meghan. They have to hold the claims made by celebrities up to scrutiny.
One of the big factors judges take into account when assessing privacy claims is the extent to which claimants have put matters into the public domain themselves.
One former tabloid executive told Press Gazette: “You can’t write about losing your virginity and in the next breath complain about lack of privacy. Suspect a) paps will now be a regular fixture again wherever he goes and b) UK pix desks will start buying and publishing safe in the knowledge he won’t be able to claim privacy.”
Mail Online yesterday published paparazzi pictures of Harry walking his dog in California.
A 2016 BBC interview was one of several occasions in which Harry has complained about intrusions into his private life.
He said: “Everyone has a right to their privacy and a lot of members of the public get it, but sadly in some areas there is this incessant need to find every bit of detail about what goes on behind the scenes.”
But that right to privacy would not appear to extend, in Harry’s eyes, to estranged members of his close family.
[Read more: Prince Harry versus the press: Changing UK media now his ‘life’s work’ he tells ITV’s Tom Bradby]
It will be interesting to see whether he himself is subject to a privacy action.
The 2006 Loreena McKennitt versus Niema Ash case showed that those in close family relationships owe a duty of confidence to each other.
Railing against “pirates with press cards” in 2021, Harry said that the UK press “sadly conflate profit with purpose and news with entertainment and they don’t report the news, they create it, and they’ve successfully turned fact-based news into opinion-based gossip with devastating consequences for the country”.
But this moral high ground is somewhat undermined by the fact he has earned in excess of $100m by entertaining the public with salacious details from his private life, first with a Netflix series and now with this book.
How was Prince Harry book leaked to press?
Details of Prince Harry’s book Spare, due to be released on Tuesday (10 January), first became public on Thursday (5 January).
British-born Guardian US reporter Martin Pengelly, who has a track record of publishing industry scoops, managed to get hold of a copy of Spare and revealed claims made by Harry of a physical altercation with his brother William in 2019.
Pengelly previously got the pre-publication scoop of details from Michael Wolff’s Donald Trump book Fire And Fury in 2018.
Then, also on Thursday, copies of the Spanish language translation appeared in bookshops in Spain. Shoppers, including journalists from the likes of the Daily Mail and The Sun, grabbed copies before it was removed from shelves.
One Barcelona shop assistant told Mail Online: “We just received this today. It was the only new book. There was no indication that we could not put it on sale until a certain date so we put it on sale today. It might be popular here in Spain.”
An independent bookstore owner in southern Spain told the paper: “It came with a big sign on it saying ‘Not for sale until January 10’ but who’s going to find out and I need to make money anyway.”
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