Prince Harry reveals Queen Elizabeth backed his battle against tabloids as he recalls ‘horrible’ paparazzi incident

Prince Harry has revealed the late Queen Elizabeth backed his plight against the British tabloids, as he opened up on a “horrible” night out where he was allegedly hit over the head by cameras wielded by paparazzi.

Prince Harry has claimed the late Queen Elizabeth supported his struggle against the British tabloids as he recounted a “horrible” night where paparazzi allegedly struck him over the head with their cameras.

Harry’s latest interview with British broadcaster ITV will be included in the network’s upcoming documentary Tabloids on Trial, which delves into the 2011 phone hacking scandal.

The 39-year-old told ITV interviewer Rebecca Barry that he had many conversations with his late grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, who he claimed supported his legal battles against members of the British press.

Prince Harry has revealed the late Queen Elizabeth backed his plight against the British tabloids. Picture: Chris Jackson/Getty Images
“We had many conversations before she passed. This is very much something she supported,” he said.

“She knew how much this meant to me and she’s very much up there going, ‘See this through to the end’, without question.”

During her 70-year reign, the Queen welcomed press coverage, including the live TV coverage of her coronation for the first time in the British monarchy’s history and broadcasting her Christmas message with the BBC.

Queen Elizabeth II visits the BBC Television Centre in London on its 50th anniversary on July 24, 1973. Picture: Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Queen Elizabeth II at her Coronation at Westminster Abbey in 1953 which was televised live for the first time in the monarchy’s history. Picture: Reg Speller/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
But she also bore resemblance to her grandson’s grievances with the British press at times, famously telling reporters who lurked nearby herself and then Prince Charles: “A thoroughly nasty new year to your editors..”

In 1982, when staff from The Star and The Sun followed Princess Diana and Charles to the Bahamas, taking photos of a pregnant Diana in a bikini, the Queen labelled it “the blackest day in the history of British journalism”.

Prince Harry also detailed the horror of dealing with the media in the documentary, pointing to footage from a night out in the 2000s, where he was trying to get into his car, but was blocked by a swarm of paparazzi.

“In those days, the paparazzi were something else, I mean, something extraordinary,” he said.

“Doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen still today, to me, to other people but I remember… I remember that night out.

“I remember the paparazzi trying to get in the door, to get in the car. I remember being hit over the head by cameras. I remember my security doing everything they could to try to keep them away.

“It felt like harassment. It felt horrible then, it feels horrible now.”

Prince Harry is seen during his sit-down interview for the upcoming ITV documentary Tabloids On Trial. Picture: ITV
In his bombshell interview with ITV, Harry also revealed that his family’s lack of support in his legal battles against the tabloids was a “central” part of the destruction of their relationship.

“I think that’s certainly a central piece to it but that’s a hard question to answer because anything I say about my family results in a torrent of abuse from the press,” the Duke of Sussex said.

Last year Prince Harry secured a landmark win against Mirror Group Newspapers, when a High Court judge found there was “widespread and habitual” phone hacking, even during the Leveson inquiry into standards and ethics of the British press.

The Prince’s appearance in the high-profile trial marked the time a senior royal had been cross-examined in court in more than 130 years.