Piers Morgan hits back at Prince Harry over phone hacking allegations

Piers Morgan shared a cryptic post on social media after his name was mentioned in Prince Harry's privacy suit against publishers of the Daily Mirror.

The outspoken TV host shared a screenshot taken from an episode of "South Park" that parodied the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's quest for privacy following their royal exit in 2020.

He did not provide any caption but later in the day hit out at Prince Harry during an interview with a British news crew outside his London home. He accused the 38-year-old of violating the royal family's privacy by going on a series of interviews and writing his memoir.

"All I'm going to say is I'm not going to take lectures on privacy invasion from Prince Harry," he told ITV News.

"Somebody who has spent the last three years ruthlessly and cynically invading the royal family's privacy for vast commercial gain and told a pack of lies about them. So, I suggest he gets out of court and apologise to his family for the disgraceful invasion of privacy that he's been perpetrating."

When asked if he is "willing to apologise," Morgan replied, "Apologise? I think Prince Harry should be apologising for his disgraceful invasion of privacy of the royal family...and others by the way."

Prince Harry is suing Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), publishers of the Daily Mirror and Sunday People, over alleged illegal journalistic practices. These include bugging, phone hacking, and blagging (acquiring information under a false pretense).

In court documents submitted to London's High Court and obtained by Newsweek, the duke's lawyers included testimony from Omid Scobie, co-author of "Finding Freedom," who claimed that he was instructed to hack phones while he was an intern at the Daily Mirror. He also overheard conversations about stories based on illegally sourced material.

Morgan was the editor at the time when the author worked for the publication. Scobie told the court that he did not hack phones as he was instructed because he found the practice immoral.

Court filings claimed that the former "Good Morning Britain" host "authorised" the use of private investigators (PIs) to illegally obtain people's private information. He allegedly also knew about the phone hacking activities.

Lawyers for Prince Harry argue that executives at the publisher knew about the illegal practice and that it was "inconceivable" that Morgan and other editors had no knowledge about MGN journalists using PIs to gather information.

But he has since denied being involved in such practices and told the BBC, "I've never hacked a phone." He said he was not aware of any phone hacking while he was editor at the Daily Mirror.

He added that it "shouldn't have been happening" and called it "lazy journalists being lazy." He noted that there was no evidence to suggest that he knew anything about it.

Morgan also pointed out that he only worked for the Daily Mirror and not for the Sunday Mirror or Sunday People. He acknowledged that there were civil cases during his nearly ten-year tenure as editor but they had nothing to do with him and that none of the journalists who worked for him were arrested over phone hacking.

"I've not been called to give evidence, I know nothing about it," he said adding that he "couldn't give a monkey's cuss" when asked if he is worried about Prince Harry's privacy suit. "I don't give a damn what actions he wants to take," he added.

MGN has since apologised to Prince Harry over a 2004 story that appeared in the Sunday People that was obtained illegally. But it denied allegations of phone hacking saying in a statement, "Where historical wrongdoing has taken place we have made admissions, take full responsibility and apologise unreservedly, but we will vigorously defend against allegations of wrongdoing where our journalists acted lawfully."

Morgan has long been a vocal critic of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. He now has his own show called "Piers Morgan Uncensored" after he left his position as host of "Good Morning Britain" in March 2021.