The 38-year-old Duke of Sussex testified for the second day in his lawsuit against Mirror Group Newspapers.
It was an emotional day in court for Prince Harry. The 38-year-old son of the late Princess Diana and King Charles III took the witness stand for his second day of testimony in High Court in London, England, in his case against Mirror Group Newspapers.
Though cameras were not allowed into the courtroom, ET's royal correspondent, Katie Nicholl, noted that at one point during the questioning from Harry's own lawyer, David Sherborne, the Duke of Sussex got visibly choked up.
Sherborne asked Harry how it felt to go through all of the personal topics in the case, which has included details about past headlines surrounding his private life, and Harry looked emotional while replying, "It's a lot."
"Prince Harry was emotional at the end of it as I think anyone would be," Nicholl tells ET. "It's an incredibly grueling experience being cross-examined. Yesterday he was in the box for over five hours, less today, but a very exhausting experience nonetheless. For Prince Harry, he knows that it's not just the eyes of the courtroom on him, it's the eyes of the world's media."
Noting that Harry became "quite choked up" at the end of testifying, Nicholl adds, "The hardest interview, probably, of his entire life. This was never going to be a walk in the park, but I suspect even Harry wasn't prepared for the intensity of being cross-examined."
Considering this is not a trial by jury, Judge Timothy Fancourt will be the one making the decision.
"The judge would have been watching very closely, he would have been listening to every word he said," Nicholl says, adding of his emotional moment, "That's going to be a moment, I would imagine would stay in the judge's mind."
Harry is the first royal to take the stand in more than a century. During his testimony, he shared that he first approached Sherborne to represent him while on holiday in France in 2018.
"It was a discussion to somehow find a way to find a different course of action to stop the hate coming towards me and my wife," Harry said, referencing the scrutiny surrounding him and his wife, Meghan Markle.
Harry and Meghan share two children, son Archie, 4, and daughter, Lilibet, 2. He missed the first day of the trial because he was celebrating Lilibet's birthday in California.
Harry and Meghan stepped down from royal life in 2021 after a tumultuous few years. Subsequently, the couple gave a tell-all interview to Oprah Winfrey, calling out the royal family for their alleged treatment.
In December 2022, they released the Netflix docuseries, Harry & Meghan, chronicling their love story and exit from the royal family. Then in January 2023, Harry released his explosive memoir, Spare.
His relationship with his family has remained estranged, though Harry attended his father's May coronation solo.
ET has learned that Harry is not expected to see his father, who has been in Romania, while he gives evidence in his court proceeding.
Harry remained in court after his testimony wrapped on Wednesday, watching as Jane Kerr, the former royal editor of the Daily Mirror, took the stand for questioning.
Kerr admitted to hiring private investigators to look into the duke's private life, but said, "It didn’t occur to me that anything was unlawful, so the main thing was to check the story was accurate."
Harry is not expected to appear in court again, though there is still supposed to be weeks left of the trial, which is looking into illegal phone hacking on the part of Mirror Group Newspapers for several famous British stars in addition to Harry.
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