A High Court trial heard that a Mail on Sunday editor knew of the Princess of Wales’ first pregnancy before the news was announced, but chose not to pass on the information to “maintain her friendships” and not “cross the line”.
Charlotte Griffiths, Editor at Large of the Mail on Sunday, gave evidence on Tuesday at the privacy trial brought by seven people, including Prince Harry, against Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL), publisher of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday, over alleged unlawful information-gathering.
Griffiths claimed she socialised in some of the same circles as the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Sussex, and denied ever hacking a phone or using a private investigator.
ANL has strongly denied wrongdoing and is defending the claims brought by the group, which also includes Sir Elton John, David Furnish and Liz Hurley, and Baroness Doreen Lawrence.
The court was told that Griffiths became aware of the Princess of Wales’ first pregnancy after Prince William told friends Kate had morning sickness at a country party she was attending.
In her witness statement, she said: “I draw a line between my professional and own personal social life, as compared to my attending events as a journalist.”
She added: “For example, friends invited me to a country weekend in the last week of November/first weekend of December 2012 which both Prince William and Kate Middleton were also expected to attend.
“William arrived solo on the Friday and explained that Kate was suffering with morning sickness.
“The fact that she was pregnant with their first child would have been big news and St James’s Palace only confirmed it the following Monday because she had to be admitted to hospital.
“I decided to keep it to myself.
“Geordie (Greig, then editor) found out that I had known and was quite annoyed that I hadn’t reported it to him on the Friday ahead of the palace statement on the Monday ,as we would have scooped the rest of the press, but it was information I had learned at a private event and that I was attending in a personal capacity so I treated it as such.
“I missed a scoop to maintain my friendships and because I knew where the line was and had decided not to cross it.”
Griffiths also told the court she had interacted socially with Prince Harry a few times, including one occasion when the two of them attended a party where Harry allegedly stayed up all night before having to attend an event related to Trooping the Colour the next morning.
In her witness statement, she said: “I have been told that call records show a call at 2.50am and three text messages at 10.11 being exchanged by me and Prince Harry on June 9 2012 and asked whether I remember what that was about.
“I have never hacked or tapped a phone. The records I have been shown had nothing to do with a story or my job.”
She added that she could not initially remember how she got Harry’s phone number, but later remembered that he sent her his number on Facebook in 2011.
Ms Griffiths continued: “I do remember that around that date (of the text messages) I had been out at a club night with our mutual friend, Arthur, who then invited me back to his house for an after party.”
She added: “He told me that Prince Harry would let me in if I made it there first. The music was loud and they didn’t hear the doorbell, so Arthur advised me to call and text to be let in.
“That particular night stuck in my mind as I remember it was around the time of the Trooping of the Colour and we all thought it was quite funny that Prince Harry had stayed up all night and said he had to go to that or something related in the morning.”
David Sherborne, representing the group of household names bringing the claim, suggested that Griffiths had “invented” her story about William telling a group at the country weekend that Kate was pregnant.
He also proposed that Griffiths was “making up” connections with the royal family, and she “deliberately” overplayed her relationship with Harry.
Griffiths denied all of these claims.
Sherborne also suggested Griffiths had used private investigators who engaged in unlawful acts to write articles in the claim related to Sir Elton and Hurley.
The editor said she had sources for the information that appeared in the stories Sherborne was referencing.
Later in the day, the editor of the Mail on Sunday, David Dillon, started giving his evidence in the case.
In written submissions, Sherborne alleged that Dillon had approved “many invoices for unlawful acts” and had also instructed private investigator Steve Whittamore directly when he was a news editor at the paper.
Dillon denied these claims in his witness statement, writing, “In over 25 years at the Mail on Sunday, I have never known of anyone hacking or tapping a phone, nor have I ever been asked to, asked anyone else to, or hacked or tapped a phone myself.”
He is due to continue giving evidence on Wednesday.
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