Prince Harry Testifies in UK Phone Hacking Case, Citing Tabloid Press’s ‘Twisted Objective’

glamour.com:

he brought against Mirror Group Newspapers, alleging that the tabloid press had hacked his phone and voicemails and those of his friends and associates to illegally obtain information about him.

He called the hacking the press’s “twisted objective” in written testimony submitted to the court on Tuesday. He alleged that the press’s invasion of his privacy had negatively impacted his life and mental health, making it so he could not trust his friends and found it hard to be in romantic relationships.

He said that he felt he’d been forced into a role by the press, and that he felt he was helpless in how he was perceived, leading sometimes to reckless actions. “You start off as a blank canvas while they [the press] work out what kind of person you are and what kind of problems and temptations you might have,” he wrote in his testimony. “They then start to edge you towards playing the role or roles that suit them best and which sells as many newspapers as possible, especially if you are the ‘spare’ to the ‘heir.’ You’re then either the playboy prince, ‘the failure,’ the dropout, or, in my case, ‘the thicko,’ the ‘cheat,’ the ‘underage drinker,’ the ‘irresponsible drug taker,’ the list goes on.

As a teenager and in my early twenties, I ended up feeling as though I was playing up to a lot of the headlines and stereotypes that they wanted to pin on me mainly because I thought that, if they are printing this rubbish about me and people were believing it, I may as well ‘do the crime,’ so to speak.