Charles undermined late queen’s plan to sue News UK, Prince Harry tells court

Queen Elizabeth II personally threatened Rupert Murdoch's media company with legal proceedings over phone hacking only for her efforts to be undermined by the then Prince Charles, the high court has heard.

Prince Harry said his father intervened because he wanted to ensure the Sun supported his ascension to the throne and Camilla's role as queen consort, and had a "specific long-term strategy to keep the media on side" for "when the time came".

The Duke of Sussex made the claims on Tuesday as part of his ongoing legal action against News Group Newspapers. The legal case lays bare Harry's allegations of the deals between senior members of the British royal family and tabloid newspapers.

The prince said his father, the king, had personally demanded he stop his legal cases against British newspaper outlets when they were filed in late 2019.

The court filings state: "I was summoned to Buckingham Palace and specifically told to drop the legal actions because they have an 'effect on all the family'." He added this was "a direct request (or rather demand) from my father" and senior royal aides.

Harry blamed tabloid press intrusion for collapses in his mental health, said journalists had destroyed many of his relationships with girlfriends, and said British tabloid journalists fuelled online trolls and drove people to suicide.

He said: "How much more blood will stain their typing fingers before someone can put a stop to this madness?"