LONDON - Alleged unlawful information gathering by two UK newspapers made Prince Harry "paranoid beyond belief" and left Elton John feeling "violated", the pair have testified as a joint lawsuit in the High Court.
Harry, pop icon John and his husband David Furnish and four other high-profile figures are suing Associated Newspapers Ltd (ANL), the publisher of the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday, for privacy invasions.
Harry returned to Britain to attend Monday's opening proceedings in the last unresolved case brought by the British royal in his crusade against several UK newspaper publishers.
The claimants allege the tabloids illegally intercepted voicemail messages, listened into phone calls and deceptively obtained private information from at least 1993 to 2018, in some instances.
They accuse ANL of paying private investigators implicated in other phone hacking lawsuits for some of the "unlawful information gathering acts" to generate stories.
ANL has consistently denied the claims, calling them "lurid" and "preposterous".
In new court submissions, Harry's lawyers detailed the self-described impact of 14 "unlawful articles" about him in the two tabloids that were "based on repeated, sustained and covert acquisition of private information".
Harry stated they created a "massive strain" on his personal relationships, "creating distrust and suspicion," and drove "me paranoid beyond belief, isolating me".
Meanwhile, witness statements by John and Furnish showed "they feel that their home, and the safety of their children and loved ones, has been violated".
The pair felt "outrage" when they discovered "Associated's invasion into medical details surrounding the birth of their son Zachary, and the stealing of their son's birth certificate".
It is the third and final case brought against a British newspaper publisher by Harry, who has called it his "mission" to take on the tabloids "for the greater good".
King Charles III's younger son has long blamed the media for the death of his mother Princess Diana, killed in a Paris car crash in 1997 while trying to shake off the paparazzi.