Prince Harry privacy battle takes new turn as PI disowns 'false' witness statement
His retraction throws a major curveball into the case filed by Harry and six other high-profile claimants
Prince Harry’s high-stakes privacy lawsuit against the publisher of the Daily Mail has taken a dramatic turn after the private investigator at the center of the case claimed his previous “confession” was forged.
In documents released by the High Court this week, investigator Gavin Burrows insisted that a witness statement dated August 2021, the document that helped trigger Harry’s lawsuit, was “prepared by others without my knowledge.”
Burrows now says the signature on that statement is not his, calling the document “completely false” and written in language he “would never use.”
Burrows was previously linked to the most serious allegations of unlawful information-gathering, including claims of phone tapping, car bugging, voicemail hacking and targeting people close to Prince Harry.
His retraction throws a major curveball into the case filed by Harry and six other high-profile claimants, including Elton John and Elizabeth Hurley.
In a new 30-page statement from September 2024, Burrows insists he never carried out illegal work for Associated Newspapers Limited, aside from one lawful job involving Richard Branson. ANL maintains the hacking allegations are “lurid” and “preposterous.”
Lawyer David Sherborne, representing the claimants, blasted Burrows’ new testimony as “scurrilous” and a “grotesque attack,” while ANL’s legal team pushed for full cross-examination.
The court is now weighing whether Burrows will testify at the January 2026 trial. Another pre-trial hearing is scheduled before the end of 2025.
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