Prince Harry appeared in the High Court today for a phone hacking trial against the Mirror Group newspaper, which he is suing for damages. According to The Independent, in his witness statement, Harry referred to an article published in People in 2002 with the headline "A plot to steal Harry's DNA". The rumor that Harry was not the son of King Charles but of James Hewitt, who was once romantically involved with Princess Diana, haunted the Duke of Sussex for most of his life, and Harry claimed that the tabloid rumor that his father was Hewitt and not King Charles was an attempt to remove him from the royal family. He claimed that they were an attempt to remove him from the royal family.

"They were hurtful, mean, and cruel," Harry said. 'I always questioned the motives behind the stories. Were the newspapers eager to sow doubt in the public's mind because I might be expelled from the royal family?

Harry added that Diana had met Hewitt only after Harry's birth, a fact well known among the reporters at the Miller Group Newspapers.

"Many newspapers were reporting rumors that my biological father was James Hewitt, a man with whom my mother had a relationship after I was born," Harry said.

He added, "I was 18 at the time and had lost my mother just six years earlier, so stories like this felt very damaging and very real to me." Harry said he was particularly concerned about comments in the aforementioned article that referred to a "high-ranking royal source" who provided details of the alleged plot and how Harry's DNA would be "sold overseas." Harry said he did not believe the information came from anyone in the palace, but that it showed that the Miller Group of Newspapers used illegal means to gather information about him for the article.

Harry claimed that approximately 140 articles published between 1996 and 2010 contained information gathered by illegal means, 33 of which will be considered in court.