Prince Harry Reveals 'Disagreement' With William in Court Testimony

Prince Harry has revealed the truth behind reports that he and Prince William were at odds over how to handle a former member of their mother's staff who was making deeply personal revelations about her private life in the early 2000s.

Harry discussed a tabloid report during a High Court trial on Tuesday, as part of his ongoing legal battle against a U.K. publisher accused of having obtained information on the royal illegally between 1996 and 2011.

Harry arrived at London's Royal Courts of Justice on Tuesday to provide evidence against Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), the publishers behind the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and Sunday People tabloids. The prince filed his lawsuit with a number of other high profile figures, with his selected as a sample of four to be taken to trial.

In his witness statement, supplied to the court, Harry provided a December 2003 article published by an MGN title which detailed his personal objections to meeting with Paul Burrell, Princess Diana's butler from 1987 up until her death in 1997.

Burrell became a figure of increased media interest after the princess' death and for a period worked as a fundraiser for the Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Fund set up in her memory.

After leaving the charity, a police raid at Burrell's home saw him accused of theft after hundreds of items belonging to the princess, as well as Prince William and the then-Prince Charles, were found in his attic.

The trustees of Diana's estate took Burrell to court over the alleged theft but a High Court trial sensationally collapsed in 2002 when evidence was supplied that Queen Elizabeth II had remembered the butler telling her he was taking items to his home for safekeeping.

Unhappy with his treatment by the trustees, Burrell published a memoir in 2003 all about his life behind-closed-doors at Kensington Palace with Diana, revealing information about her love life as well as personal details about William, Harry and the royal family.

At the time of the book, titled A Royal Duty's, publication, reports circulated that Prince William sought to meet with Burrell in order to stop any more distressing revelations. Citing unnamed royal sources, the reports also noted that Harry was resolute in staying away from the person willingly telling Diana's secrets to the world.

Concerning the MGN article covering the brother's opposing views at the time, Harry claims the information used to write it was sourced through unlawful information gathering techniques, which includes under that umbrella, phone-hacking.

"The article accurately sets out the position that my brother was open to fixing a
meeting with Paul [Burrell] to discuss his ongoing exposés about our mother," Harry said in his statement, seen by Newsweek.

"However I had made up my mind about the kind of person I thought Paul was and was firmly against meeting him at this point in my life. To the best of my recollection, I do not believe a meeting went ahead in 2003."

Referring to the disagreement with William, Harry also disclosed that: "Both my brother and I had very strong feelings about how indiscrete Paul had proven to be with the way he had sold our mother's possessions and how he had given numerous interviews about her.

"We firmly believed that she would have expected some privacy in death, especially from someone she had trusted, and we were so upset at the way he was behaving—I didn't want to hear his reasons for it. Therefore, our disagreement over to how to handle the situation going forward was not something I wanted splashed across the Defendant's newspapers."

He then added that he had "no idea" how journalists would have obtained the information used in the article, and also suggested that the quotation attributed to himself calling Burrell a "two-face s***" could have been "lifted directly from a voicemail I had left."

When questioned on the witness stand regarding contradictory accounts of the prince's willingness to meet with Burrell in 2003, Harry conceded: "I cannot remember whether I wanted a meeting or not."

Though the brothers were at odds with how to handle Burrell behind-the-scenes, a united front was presented by the palace in the form of a joint statement released ahead of the butler's book's publication.

"We cannot believe that Paul, who was entrusted with so much, could abuse his position in such a cold and overt betrayal," it read.

"It is not only deeply painful for the two of us, but also for everyone else affected and it would mortify our mother if she were alive today.

"And if we might say so, we feel we are more able to speak for our mother than Paul. We ask Paul please to bring these revelations to an end."

Burrell has continued to be a regular royal commentator and reality TV star, discussing his time spent with Diana and both William and Harry.

This is not the first time Harry has revealed that he and William were opposed on important matters.

Throughout his recently released Netflix docuseries and 410-page memoir, Spare, his relationship with his older brother is painted as increasingly adversarial, culminating in the revelation that the pair were no longer speaking at the time of the memoir's publication.

For his part, William has not spoken about his brother or their relationship publicly.

Newsweek approached Kensington Palace via email for comment.

James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek's royal reporter based in London. You can find him on Twitter at @jrcrawfordsmith 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.