
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM - MAY 08: (EMBARGOED FOR PUBLICATION IN UK NEWSPAPERS UNTIL 24 HOURS AFTER CREATE DATE AND TIME) Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex (wearing a Household Division regimental tie) attends The Invictus Games Foundation 10th Anniversary Service at St Paul's Cathedral on May 8, 2024 in London, England. (Photo by Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images)
Another day, another scandal for Prince Harry. During a hearing in London on June 27, lawyers for NGN, publishers of the U.K.’s The Sun newspaper, accused the Duke of Sussex, 39, of “obfuscation” during his phone hacking lawsuit against the publisher, alleging that he “deliberately destroyed” relevant evidence, including hundreds of texts and emails. English High Court Justice Timothy Fancourt agreed that there was “troubling evidence” that some messages were destroyed “well after this claim was underway,” and “a real concern” that Harry himself had been the one to search for the relevant documents at his Montecito, California, home.
It’s “rather remarkable,” he added, that so few have been handed over. Harry, the judge ordered, needs to do everything he can to turn over the texts and emails or explain to the court “what exactly happened.”
But Harry’s lawyers insist there’s no cover-up involved. They claim Harry went “above and beyond his obligations” to find the documents and have called the opposing counsel’s request a “classic fishing expedition” — but did acknowledge that many of his texts, especially regarding his memoir, Spare, were deleted because they contained “highly sensitive information about Harry and the royal family which, if leaked, would not only compromise his security, but also be potentially damaging to [him] and his family.”
It seems like the judge isn’t buying it. “This reeks of a cover-up,” a source exclusively tells In Touch.