Picture: YouTube
Prince Harry seemingly criticised Prince William regarding a comment he made about their mother, Princess Diana, who tragically died in a car crash in August 1997.
In a new ITV documentary “Tabloids on Trial,” which aired last week, Harry discussed suing the British press over phone hacking allegations.
Journalist Rebecca Barry asked Harry about phone hacking leading to paranoia, and his response appeared to be a critique of Prince William, who had previously suggested that Diana suffered from "paranoia.”
"I think paranoia is a very interesting word because, yes, then it could be paranoia, but then when you're vindicated it proves that you weren't being paranoid,” Prince Harry said in the documentary. "Same with my mother. There's evidence to suggest she was being hacked in the mid-90s. Probably one of the first people to be hacked."
"And yet still today the press, the tabloid press, very much enjoy painting her as being paranoid but she wasn't paranoid,” the Duke of Sussex continued to tell ITV. "She was absolutely right about what was happening to her. And she's not around today to find out the truth."
Although the prince claimed in his lawsuits that Diana was hacked, it was never proven. A judge dismissed an allegation that Mirror Group Newspapers hacked her phone.
Previously, a BBC internal investigation found that Diana had been deceived into giving her explosive 1995 interview with Martin Bashir. It was determined that the journalist falsified financial papers implying Diana’s staff were in the pay of the media and intelligence services.
In 2021, William spoke about his mother's mental health in an interview. "It is my view that the deceitful way the interview was obtained substantially influenced what my mother said,” he stated. "The interview was a major contribution to making my parents' relationship worse and has since hurt countless others.”
"It brings indescribable sadness to know that the BBC's failures contributed significantly to her fear, paranoia and isolation that I remember from those final years with her,” he added. "But what saddens me most, is that if the BBC had properly investigated the complaints and concerns first raised in 1995, my mother would have known that she had been deceived."
William continued, "She was failed not just by a rogue reporter, but by leaders at the BBC who looked the other way rather than asking the tough questions. It is my firm view that this Panorama programme holds no legitimacy and should never be aired again. It effectively established a false narrative, which for over a quarter of a century, has been commercialised by the BBC and others."
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