Prince Harry is going where other British royals haven't for over a century: to a courtroom witness stand.

The Duke of Sussex is set to testify in the first of his five pending legal cases largely centered around battles with British tabloids. Opening statements are scheduled Monday in his case.

Harry said in court documents that the royal family had assiduously avoided the courts to prevent testifying about matters that might be embarrassing.

His frustration and anger at the press, however, impelled him to buck convention by suing newspaper owners — allegedly against the wishes of his father, now King Charles III.

If Harry testifies as scheduled Tuesday in his lawsuit against the publisher of the Daily Mirror, he'll be the first member of the royal family to do so since the late 19th century, when Queen Victoria's eldest son, Prince Albert Edward, testified twice in court.

The man who would go on to become King Edward VII testified in the divorce proceedings of a woman he was accused of having an affair with (he denied it) and in a slander case involving a man who cheated at cards. Edward VII was the great-grandfather of Queen Elizabeth II, Harry's grandmother.

A look at Prince Harry's legal battles:

Harry's history with phone hacking and paparazzi

The Daily Mirror case is one of three Harry has brought alleging phone hacking and other invasions of his privacy, dating back to when he was a boy.

In court documents, he described his relationship with the press as "uneasy" but it runs much deeper than that. The prince blames the paparazzi for causing the car crash that killed his mother, the late Princess Diana.

He also cites harassment and intrusion by the British Press and "vicious, persistent attacks" on his wife, Meghan, including racist articles, as the reason the couple left royal life and fled to the U.S. in 2020. Reforming the news media has become one of his life's missions.

News that British journalists hacked phones for scoops first emerged in 2006 with the arrest of a private investigator and the royals reporter at the now-defunct News of the World. The two were jailed, and the reporter apologized for hacking phones used by aides of Harry, his older brother, Prince William, and their father.

A full-blown hacking scandal erupted five years later when it was revealed that the Rupert Murdoch-owned tabloid eavesdropped on voicemails on the phone of a slain girl, forcing the paper to close and launching a public inquiry.

Since that time, other newspapers have been accused of illegal intrusions that extended to tapping phones, bugging homes and using deception to obtain phone, bank and medical records.

Who is Harry suing?

The duke is taking on three of Britain's best-known tabloid publishers.

In addition to Mirror Group Newspapers, he is suing Murdoch's News Group Newspapers, publisher of The Sun, and Associated Newspapers Ltd., which owns the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday.

The claims are similar: that journalists and people they employed listened to phone messages and committed other unlawful acts to snoop on Harry and invade his privacy.

In a sign of how much the cases matter to him, Harry attended several days of hearings in March in the case against the Mail publisher.

Several celebrities with similar allegations have also filed claims being heard alongside Harry's, including Hugh Grant in the News Group case, and Elton John and Elizabeth Hurley in the Associated Newspapers case.

Associated Newspapers "vigorously denies" the claims. News Group has apologized for News of the World's hacking but The Sun does not accept liability or admit to any of the allegations, according to spokespeople.

Both publishers argued during High Court hearings this spring that the lawsuits should be thrown out because Harry and the others failed to bring them within a six-year time limit.

The lawyer representing Harry and other claimants said they should be granted an exception because the publishers lied and concealed evidence that prevented them from learning of the covert acts in time to meet the deadlines.

What's the current trial about?

At the outset of the proceedings, Mirror Group appeared to fall on its sword, acknowledging instances when its newspapers unlawfully gathered information. It apologized in court papers and said Harry and two of the other three claimants in the case were due compensation.

But the admission involving Harry — the hiring of a private eye to dig up unspecified dirt for an article about his nightclubbing — wasn't among the nearly 150 articles between 1995 and 2011 for which he claimed Mirror Group reporters used phone hacking and other illegal methods to gather material. The trial is focusing on 33 of those stories.

Harry's lawyer, David Sherborne, said unlawful acts by reporters and editors at the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and Sunday People were "widespread and habitual" and carried out on "an industrial scale." He pointed the finger at management, in particular TV personality Piers Morgan, a former Daily Mirror editor.

Morgan has publicly denied involvement in phone hacking, as has Mirror Group in its court submissions. Mirror lawyer Andrew Green said a substantial proportion of the articles at issue involved a "breathtaking level of triviality" and that with the exception of a few instances of unlawful information gathering, the company's reporters had used public records and sources to legally obtain information.

The trial is a test case involving four claimants, including two members of Britain's longest-running soap opera, "Coronation Street." But the verdict could determine the outcome of hacking claims also made against Mirror Group by the estate of the late singer George Michael, former Girls Aloud member Cheryl and former soccer player Ian Wright.

The case is broken into two parts: a generic case that lasted nearly three weeks in which Harry's lawyer laid out evidence of alleged skullduggery at the newspapers; the second part, starting Monday, with the four claimants testifying about specific acts targeting them.

What are the other lawsuits about?

Harry's fear and loathing of the press intersects with two active cases that center around the government's decision to stop protecting him after he abandoned royal duties.

Harry argued his security is compromised when he visits the U.K., saying that aggressive paparazzi chased him after a charity event in 2021. He sued the British government for withdrawing his security detail.

With that lawsuit pending, he unsuccessfully tried to challenge the government's subsequent rejection of his offer to pay for his own police protection.

A judge is weighing whether Harry's libel suit against Associated Newspapers for reporting that he tried to hide his legal efforts to get the British government to provide security should go to trial.

"How Prince Harry tried to keep his legal fight with the government over police bodyguards a secret… then — just minutes after the story broke — his PR machine tried to put a positive spin on the dispute," the Mail on Sunday wrote in its headline.

In past cases, Meghan won an invasion of privacy case in 2021 against the Mail on Sunday for printing a private letter she wrote to her father. That led to a 1-pound settlement for violating her privacy and an undisclosed sum for copyright infringement.

The couple has also settled lawsuits against photo agencies for flying a drone over their California home and a helicopter over a home where they were living in England.

LOS ANGELES — The Duchess of Sussex, Meghan, has told Oprah Winfrey that she experienced suicidal thoughts and was concerned when the decision was made that her son wouldn't have a royal title.

Meghan, who is biracial, told Winfrey in the interview airing Sunday night in the U.S. that there were discussions among the royal family about how dark her son's skin would be.

Meghan told Winfrey in the interview airing Sunday that she “just didn’t see a solution” to the mental suffering she had experienced and told Harry she “didn’t want to be alive anymore.”

She said she went to a senior royal staffer and said she needed to get help for her mental health, but was told it would be bad for the family if she did.

She described the moment as a breaking point leading to her and Harry stepping aside from their royal duties.

Meghan however refused to criticize Queen Elizabeth II, saying she had “always been wonderful to me.”

Winfrey asked Harry whether he would have stepped down from his royal duties if he had never met Meghan. Harry replied that “I wouldn’t have been able to, because I myself was trapped as well” until ”the moment that I met Meg.”

Prince Harry denied blindsiding the queen with the news that he and Meghan were stepping down from their royal duties, saying it was preceded by several conversations.

He did however say that his father, Prince Charles, has stopped taking his calls.

Harry said his family cut him off financially in early 2020. Harry said “we did everything we did to make it work” and would never have left had the palace been supportive of Meghan.

The couple also revealed their second child, due later this summer, will be a girl. Their first child, son Archie, turns 2 in May.

Harry says “to have a boy and then a girl, what more can you ask for? But now we’ve got our family."

Winfrey's interview with Harry and his wife Meghan opened with the host saying no questions are off limits and that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are not being paid for the televised special. Early moments focused on Meghan describing how naive she was about royal life, including that she “didn't fully understand what the job was" and spent nights "googling" because there was no formal training or effort to teach her.

The interview special aired on CBS and will be shown the following day in Britain.

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is a national network of local crisis centers that provides free and confidential emotional support to people in suicidal crisis or emotional distress 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Call 1-800-273-8255 if you are experiencing thoughts of suicide or mental distress.

LONDON (AP) — Princes William and Harry have unveiled a statue of their late mother, Princess Diana, on what would have been her 60th birthday in a small and brief ceremony at London’s Kensington Palace.

Diana’s family joined the two brothers for Thursday's ceremony at the palace's Sunken Garden, a place in which the princess once found solace.

It was the first time the brothers have appeared in public together since the funeral of their grandfather, Prince Philip.

The brothers later issued a joint statement in which they described their mother’s strength and character as “qualities that made her a force for good around the world, changing countless lives for the better."

The brothers said they wish every day that their mother was still with them and hope that the statue will be seen as a symbol of her life and legacy.

“Thank you to Ian Rank-Broadley, Pip Morrison and their teams for their outstanding work, to the friends and donors who helped make this happen, and to all those around the world who keep our mother’s memory alive,” they said.

LONDON, England —

A year after they last saw one another, Prince William and his brother Prince Harry put their fraught relationship aside as they said farewell to their grandfather at his funeral on Saturday.

The brothers were somber and silent as they walked together in a procession behind Prince Philip's coffin before his funeral at Windsor Castle along with their father, Prince Charles, and other close relatives. They were seen chatting and walking together after the service concluded.

It was the first time the brothers had been together in public since Harry stood down from royal duties and moved to the U.S. with his wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, and their son Archie in early 2020.

Tensions between Harry, 36, and William, 38, came to the fore after Harry and Meghan gave a revealing interview to U.S. talk show host Oprah Winfrey last month. The couple portrayed the royal family as indifferent to Meghan's mental health struggles, and Harry described his relationship with William as "space at the moment."

On Saturday, William and Harry walked in silence on either side of their cousin, Peter Phillips, as they joined other senior royals in Philip's funeral procession. At one point Phillips fell behind slightly to allow the brothers to walk side by side — a visual echo of the moment the pair, as boys in 1997, walked behind the coffin of their mother Princess Diana in another royal funeral televised around the world.

The brothers sat opposite each other in St. George's Chapel for the funeral, which was attended by only 30 people because of coronavirus restrictions. While William sat next to his wife Kate, Harry was on his own because Meghan is pregnant with their second child and was advised by her doctor not to make the long trip.

Afterwards, Harry, William and Kate strolled together outside the chapel. Moments later, the brothers walked together alone while Kate spoke to Zara Tindall, another of Queen Elizabeth II's eight grandchildren who is William and Harry's cousin.

Rumors of a rift between the brothers — William, the heir, and Harry, the "spare" — have rumbled at least since 2019. That's when Harry and Meghan separated from the Royal Foundation, originally set up as the brothers' joint charitable venture, to set up their own platform. That year, Harry said he loved his brother dearly but they were "on different paths" and have "good days" and "bad days."

Many believe that William was angered and hurt by Harry's decision to speak so publicly about the royal family's issues during the Winfrey interview. In one explosive allegation, they said a family member — not the queen or Philip — had expressed "concerns" about Archie's possible skin color before he was born. Meghan has a Black mother and a white father.

Days after the interview aired, William insisted "we are very much not a racist family," and said he had not spoken to Harry since the broadcast.

It's unclear whether the passing of their grandfather will help the brothers heal their rift. It wasn't immediately clear how long Harry, who has been self-isolating in line with the U.K.'s coronavirus restrictions since arriving from California early this week, will stay in his home country.

Saturday's funeral was limited to only 30 people, who all had to wear masks, sit in family bubbles and remain socially distanced in the same church that had hosted hundreds of people for Harry and Meghan's royal wedding in 2018. And Britain's continued coronavirus restrictions may limit how much opportunity the brothers will get to smooth over their differences.

"Because of the restrictions of COVID, it's difficult to get down to decent conservations," said royal biographer Penny Junor. "It's probably quite difficult to sit down as they normally would over a beer and discuss things."