In a surprising turn of events, a trove of private Facebook messages exchanged between Prince Harry and a former Mail on Sunday journalist has been brought to light during the closing arguments of the Duke of Sussex\u2019s privacy lawsuit against Associated Newspapers. The texts, dated between December 2011 and January 2012, reveal a playful side of the prince that many of his fans have never seen before. They also underscore the broader legal battle over privacy rights that has kept the royal family in the public eye for months.<\/p>\n
According to court documents, the messages were sent via Facebook Messenger, a platform that was still in its early days of widespread use. Prince Harry, then 41, and Charlotte Griffiths, a 40\u2011year\u2011old journalist for the Mail on Sunday, exchanged a series of flirtatious remarks that included nicknames such as \u201csugar\u201d and \u201cH bomb.\u201d The prince\u2019s playful moniker for Griffiths\u2014\u201cMr. Mischief\u201d\u2014and her affectionate reference to \u201cmovie snuggles\u201d paint a picture of a light\u2011hearted relationship that existed outside the public eye.<\/p>\n
One of the earliest messages, dated December 4, 2011, read: \u201cIt\u2019s H, incase u were confused by name and picture!!! X.\u201d Griffiths replied with a teasing tone: \u201cWhat a fun weekend of naughtiness \u2013 can\u2019t we all get up to no good in the countryside every weeked damn it?? Smooches.\u201d The exchange continued with the prince asking how he earned the \u201cMr. Mischief\u201d title, while Griffiths humorously complained about having to \u201cmake polite conversation with strange people at a dinner\u201d and \u201cbegging them for money for charity.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a later message from January 22, 2012, Griffiths called Harry \u201cH bomb\u201d and noted, \u201cwe missed you so much at Arthur\u2019s last week.\u201d While the reference to \u201cArthur\u201d is unclear, it suggests that the two were part of a social circle that included other friends or colleagues. The texts also contain a heartfelt apology from the prince: \u201cI WISH I was there sugar but unfortunately stuck in Cornwall doing Army stuff,\u201d he wrote, adding a sad face emoji. He continued, \u201cOtherwise I would have been there playing and then drinking u under the table, obvi!!\u201d The tone is unmistakably playful and intimate.<\/p>\n
These messages surfaced during the closing hearing of Prince Harry\u2019s lawsuit against Associated Newspapers, the publisher of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday. The case centers on the alleged invasion of privacy and the publication of private conversations without consent. The court has been examining whether the texts, which were private and personal, were rightfully protected under UK privacy laws.<\/p>\n
During the hearing, the judge<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a surprising turn of events, a trove of private Facebook messages exchanged between Prince Harry and a former Mail on Sunday journalist has been brought to light during the closing arguments of the Duke of Sussex\u2019s privacy lawsuit against Associated Newspapers. The texts, dated between December…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3490,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/influencerswiki.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/influencerswiki.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/influencerswiki.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/influencerswiki.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/influencerswiki.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/influencerswiki.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/influencerswiki.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/influencerswiki.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/influencerswiki.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/influencerswiki.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}