Prince Harry thinks the U.K. press was the “main factor” in his breakup with longtime girlfriend Chelsy Davy.
In a written statement obtained by the New York Times Tuesday, the Duke of Sussex said he felt like their relationship “was always set to be doomed” due to “the prying eyes of the tabloids.”
“It was just that feeling of being under surveillance all the time,” the 38-year-old wrote. “I believe Chelsy found this even more difficult to deal with when she lived in England … everyone has a limit as to what they can endure.”
The declaration was given as part of Harry’s ongoing lawsuit against Mirror Group Newspaper Limited. The royal claims the company used unethical methods — such as tapping into his cellphone — to get inside scoops on his life.
Although Harry said he “tried to be the best partner” that he possibly could, there were always three people in his relationships: him, his partner and the press.
Harry and Davy, now 37, met in early 2004 and dated “on-off” until mid-2010 when she decided that “a royal life was not for her” due to the media scrutiny.
The royal, now married to Meghan Markle, said their breakup was “incredibly upsetting” for him, yet he understood why she did it.
Harry noted they were constantly living with “fear” for their “safety,” leading to “a huge amount of unnecessary stress and strain on our relationship.”
“We could also never understand how private elements of our life together were finding their way into the tabloids, and so our circle of friends became smaller and smaller,” he explained. “I remember finding it very hard to trust anyone, which led to bouts of depression and paranoia.”
One “private” moment that made its way into headlines came in 2005 when Harry was allegedly caught “flirting with a brunette” at a party while the Zimbabwean businesswoman was out of town.
“I had been immature, I hadn’t really thought about my actions and I had made a stupid decision — and my mistakes were being played out publicly,” the Duke of Sussex said in response to two articles published by the Daily Mirror at the time.
While the articles claimed that Davy had been “furious” with him and given him a “tongue-lashing down the phone,” the Duke questioned where they might’ve gotten that information.
“The article contains several quotes from ‘friends’ or other ‘partygoers’, but the details about our telephone communications are not attributed to anyone,” he pointed out. “So how could the Defendant’s journalists know about this?”
While the press undoubtedly played a role in the pair’s split, Harry previously claimed that they decided to call it quits due to his late grandmother’s unfavorable opinion of Davy.
In his bombshell memoir, “Spare,” the duke confessed that Queen Elizabeth II wasn’t a fan of Davy’s free-spirited lifestyle — which is what he loved most about her.
“She didn’t care what anyone thought,” he wrote. “She wore miniskirts and high-heeled boots, danced however she wanted, drank tequila like me, and all of this made me really happy.”
“I couldn’t help what my grandmother thought about it. Or the people. And the last thing I wanted was for Chels to change to please them.”
The royal is suing the Mirror Group Newspaper Limited for allegedly hacking his phone from 1996 until 2011 and using “illegal interception of voicemail messages” to obtain information about him.
The case is being tried at London’s High Court.
