Prince Harry said rumors King Charles III was not his father were "very damaging and very real to me" and he feared journalists would try to get him "ousted" from the royal family.
The Duke of Sussex is suing Mirror Group Newspapers on historic allegations of phone hacking, including over a story headlined: "Plot to rob the DNA of Harry" published in The People, on December 15, 2002.
The article related to rumors that Major James Hewitt, who Princess Diana had an affair with, was Harry's real father.
In a witness statement seen by Newsweek, Harry said: "This article, which was published on page 4 of The People and was written by Dean Rousewell, reported a plot to steal a sample of my DNA to test my parentage."
"Numerous newspapers had reported a rumour that my biological father was James Hewitt, a man my mother had a relationship with after I was born.
"At the time of this article and others similar to it, I wasn't actually aware that my mother hadn't met Major Hewitt until after I was born.
"This timeline is something I only learnt of in around 2014, although I now understand this was common knowledge amongst the defendant's journalists.
"At the time, when I was 18-years-old and had lost my mother just six years earlier, stories such as this felt very damaging and very real to me.
"They were hurtful, mean and cruel. I was always left questioning the motives behind the stories. Were the newspapers keen to put doubt into the minds of the public so I might be ousted from the royal family?"
Harry's account suggested the rumor over who his real father is was only quashed for him aged 30, which for context was two years before he met his wife Meghan Markle and a year after the birth of Prince George.
The court heard how The People and its sister title the Daily Mirror had reported on a plan to obtain Harry's DNA and sell it to an international newspaper in an attempt to determine whether Charles or Hewitt was his real father.
Harry's case also references a second article in the Mirror headlined: "Plot to steal Harry DNA" published on December 16, 2002.
The prince said in his witness statement: "This article elaborates on the money that could be obtained from obtaining my DNA and selling it on to a foreign newspaper.
"It reports that St James' Palace believed my DNA was to be offered 'to a foreign
newspaper for tens of thousands of pounds.'
"Again, I do not believe this information would have been put into the public domain by anyone at the palace, given the security risk this poses.
"The article also reports that Spain was thought to be a strong possibility for the location of the 'honeytrap' to take place. Again, I'm not sure where the [Mirror Group's] journalist would have got this information from."
Harry describes how Charles, then Prince of Wales, liked to tell an anecdote about meeting a patient at psychiatric hospital Broadmoor who believed he was the Prince of Wales: "Who knows if I'm really the Prince of Wales? Who knows if I'm even your real father? Maybe your real father is in Broadmoor, darling boy!"
Harry wrote: "He'd laugh and laugh, though it was a remarkably unfunny joke, given the
rumor circulating just then that my actual father was one of mummy's former lovers: Major James Hewitt.
"One cause of this rumor was Major Hewitt's flaming ginger hair, but another cause was sadism. Tabloid readers were delighted by the idea that the younger child of Prince Charles wasn't the child of Prince Charles.
"They couldn't get enough of this 'joke,' for some reason. Maybe it made them feel better about their lives that a young prince's life was laughable."
Mirror Group Newspapers denies hacking Prince Harry's phone and has admitted only one instance of unlawful information gathering.
The hearing, at the High Court, in London, continues.
Jack Royston is chief royal correspondent for Newsweek, based in London. You can find him on Twitter at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.
Do you have a question about King Charles III, William and Kate, Meghan and Harry, or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email royals@newsweek.com. We'd love to hear from you.
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Jack Royston is Newsweek's Chief Royal Correspondent based in London, U.K. He reports on the British royal family—including King Charles ... Read more
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