An embattled Prince Harry has lifted the lid on a secret romance from his youth as part of his testimony during a recent court appearance in London.
The relationship was described as ”brief but private” and took place with a young woman in the early 2000s.
Interestingly, the Duke of Sussex said he ”blamed” information gained about his partner at the time via ”illegal sources” as the reason for their split, the romance ended after only a ”matter of months” following intense scrutiny from the hackers who were reportedly employed by Rupert Murdoch’s Daily Mail newspaper group.
Laura Gerard-Leigh and Prince Harry in 2003.
(IMAGE: Australscope)According to Harry, the relationship was kept so secret that it was ”extraordinary” they even found out about it at all.
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The girlfriend in question was Laura Gerard Leigh, a stockbroker’s daughter whose own grandfather was good friends of the late Duke of Edinburgh.
Their brief 2003 romance was ”targeted” by private investigator Gavin Barrows who Harry claims also tapped into Laura’s parents’ voicemail messages.
”It led to Laura’s parents being doorstepped which they were understandably not pleased about,” said Harry.
”This sort of thing caused me to try and keep matters as private as I could to avoid this happening.”
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The testimony came during a highly publicized preliminary hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice in which he, alongside other high-profile figures such as Elton John are suing polarising publisher Associated Newspapers Ltd (ANL) over alleged phone hacking and misuse of private information.
Harry’s complaints in question focused specifically on a Mail on Sunday article published at the time.
In a witness statement, the former royal said that it was improbable that the publisher would have been able to attain such level of detail and personal information about his relationship with Laura otherwise.
”This article is about a then-new relationship between me and [Ms Gerad Leigh], including details about her visiting me at Eton, meeting up in private at Windsor and efforts to keep the relationship secret,” Harry said.
Elton John joined Harry at the trial as another victim of the alledged phone hacking.
(IMAGE: Getty)The defendant – Associated Newspapers – has described the claims of phone hacking as ”preposterous smears” and a ”preplanned and orchestrated attempt to drag the Mail titles into a scandal.”
They also claim that the evidence and testimonies given have been based on ”unsubstantiated and highly defamatory claims, based on no credible evidence.”
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