Prince Harry accused by journalist of placing white pill on her tongue
Journalist Charlotte Griffiths has recalled an alleged encounter with the Duke of Sussex during a shooting weekend, as renewed attention falls on Harry following the dismissal of his privacy case against the publisher of the Daily Mail.
Prince Harry has been accused by a journalist of placing what she believed was a white pill on her tongue during the early days of their friendship.
In an anecdote she has shared days after the Duke of Sussex lost his High Court privacy case against the publisher of the Daily Mail, reporter Charlotte Griffiths, writing in the Daily Mail, recalled being invited to a shooting weekend at a 4,000-acre estate in Hampshire when Harry, now 41, was still third in line to the throne.
Her account comes as Harry remains in the headlines following the dismissal of his legal claim against Associated Newspapers Limited, the publisher of the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday, over allegations of unlawful information gathering.
Harry – who stepped back from royal duties with his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, 44, in 2020 and later detailed his experiences in his memoir Spare – was among seven high-profile claimants whose case was dismissed in full by the High Court.
Charlotte wrote in the Mail: “From his pocket, he removed a small white pill.”
She added: “Then he held it up to my face, popped it onto my tongue, and said with a smile, ‘Now I know I can trust you!’... take that white pill he’d so brazenly stuck in my mouth.
“It was almost certainly paracetamol, rather than something more sinister. But I couldn’t be entirely sure.”
According to Charlotte, the incident took place during what she described as the beginning of a friendship with Harry.
She wrote the moment was intended as a prank to kick start their relationship, although she said she was left uncertain about exactly what had been placed in her mouth.
The article follows Harry’s defeat in the High Court alongside Sir Elton John, David Furnish, Elizabeth Hurley, Sadie Frost, Baroness Doreen Lawrence and Sir Simon Hughes.
The group alleged Associated Newspapers Limited had obtained information through unlawful means, including voicemail interception, landline tapping and “blagging”.
Associated Newspapers denied the allegations throughout the proceedings.
In his 436-page judgment, Mr Justice Nicklin ruled: “For the reasons given in this judgment, each of the claimants’ claims is dismissed.”
Following the ruling, Associated Newspapers said it was an “overwhelming victory” and “a magnificent vindication of the Daily Mail’s journalism”.
The publisher said: “Mr Justice Nicklin today cleared the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday, and dismissed every single one of the 97 allegations made by the claimants.
“In every case, the judge accepted the honesty of our journalists’ evidence on how they sourced their stories.”
Associated Newspapers added: “The reputations of our decent and hard-working journalists were terribly impugned, and today they have been exonerated.
“As the judgment clearly shows, every single article was legitimately sourced.”
Harry and Baroness Lawrence later criticised the outcome in a joint response.
They described the judgment as a “complete and obvious whitewash”.
