I was namechecked in the Prince Harry court case – and it shows how little he understands about journalism

Kim Sengupta wrote a version of a story Prince Harry claims could only have come through phone hacking. Here, he explains why the Duke of Sussex couldn’t be more wrong

Prince Harry holds that the British government is at ‘rock bottom’ (AP)

It was a huge surprise to be told that I have been named in the High Court in the trial of Prince Harry against Mirror Group Newspapers. I have had few dealings with the royal family in my lengthy career as a journalist, and what I cover – namely foreign affairs and wars – should not have involved me in this case about alleged phone hacking.

I had come across Prince Harry only once, when he was serving in Afghanistan. Late at night, at a frontline military base near the town of Garmsir in Helmand in spring 2008. I was woken up by my colleague Bill Neely, then with ITV News, saying, “It’s just broken about Harry, he’s here.” My befuddled response, rubbing sleep from my eyes, was, “Harry who?”

The prince’s deployment to Afghanistan had been kept secret in a deal between the palace and the British media. That deal had held. But his presence had been exposed first by an Australian magazine and then by a US website, the Drudge Report. This led to the Ministry of Defence, after consultation with the palace, recalling him back to London – supposedly for his security and that of those around him.