Journalist Katie Nicholl claims to have sourced articles from Prince Harry\u2019s inner circle (Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
A royal correspondent has claimed that she secured stories on Prince Harry<\/a> through an \u201cexcellent, reliable network of contacts\u201d which included members of his inner circle, describing claims of phone hacking as \u201cnonsense\u201d.<\/p>\n Katie Nicholl worked as both diary and royal editor at the Mail on Sunday<\/em><\/a>, and is accused of writing seven articles on the Duke of Sussex<\/a> which were sourced through unlawful information gathering.<\/p>\n Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL), the publisher of the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday, strongly denies the claims made by the prince, Baroness Doreen Lawrence<\/a>, Sir Elton John<\/a>, David Furnish, Sadie Frost, Liz Hurley and Sir Simon Hughes.<\/p>\n Ms Nicholl denied the phone-hacking claims and said that they were potentially damaging for her career, stating: \u201cThe suggestion that a reference to a telephone call or message indicates I have tapped that person\u2019s landline or hacked their voicemail is nonsense.\u201d<\/p>\n In her witness statement, she said that she had \u201cexcellent connections with aristocrats and socialites\u201d, which included people who tipped her off if Prince Harry was in attendance at an event or a party.<\/p>\n In her written statement, she said: \u201cThese sources would often tell me who Prince Harry was meeting up with, going out with, enjoying texts and conversations with.<\/p>\n \u201cThey had an intimate knowledge of his social life both through spending time with Prince Harry and his group of friends and having access to his social media.<\/p>\n Several of the articles accused of being sourced through unlawful information gathering were regarding his relationship with Chelsy Davy (David Davies\/PA) (PA Archive)<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n \u201cThese were acquaintances who knew him or knew people very close to the Prince.\u201d<\/p>\n This included the late socialite Tara Palmer Tomkinson, who Ms Nicholl describes as a \u201cclose friend\u201d, as well as the late Elizabeth Anson, who was a party planner to A-list celebrities and a first cousin to Queen Elizabeth II.<\/p>\n She also said that she was \u201cfriendly\u201d with Natalie Pinkham, who briefly dated the prince, who would sometimes speak to her off the record.<\/p>\n \u201cI also had another confidential source who was a friend of Prince Harry and part of his inner circle.<\/p>\n \u201cThis friend was often there when Prince Harry was on his phone and therefore sometimes knew who Prince Harry was speaking to and was in a position to overhear his conversations.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Prince on at least one occasion showed this person some of his text messages,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>