The Duke of Sussex has said he felt like the tabloid press was a “third party” in all of his relationships.

In court documents revealed on Tuesday, Harry said he always tried to be “the best partner” he could be, but “every woman has her limit”.

He said that the tabloid press always became involved in his relationships, and tried to ruin them.

“Whenever I have been in a relationship, I have always tried to be the best partner that I possibly could, but every woman has her limit,” he said in a witness statement.

“Unfortunately, they are not just in a relationship with me but with the entire tabloid press as a third party.

“At no point did I have a girlfriend or a relationship with anyone without the tabloids getting involved and ultimately ruining it, or trying to ruin it, using whatever unlawful means at their disposal.”

He claimed that the tabloid press felt like it “owned” him, despite him only being 5% funded by the taxpayer while he was a working royal.

“Despite the common misconception, I was no more than 5% funded by the taxpayer while I was a working royal in the UK, yet it felt as though the tabloid press thought that they owned me absolutely, and deserved to know everything there is to know about me, my life, my movements and the lives of those people who came into my orbit,” he said.

Harry claimed that the tabloid press cast him as a “thicko” and a “cheat”, and that he ended up “playing up” to the headlines they wrote about him.

“As a teenager and in my early twenties, I ended up feeling as though I was playing up to a lot of the headlines and stereotypes that they wanted to place upon me,” he said.

“It was a downward spiral, whereby the tabloids would constantly try and coax me, a ‘damaged’ young man, into doing something stupid that would make a good story and sell lots of newspapers. Looking back on it now, such behaviour on their part is utterly vile.”

He said that the tabloids hoped for him to undergo a “total and very public breakdown”.

“Despite them all knowing about what I was dealing with throughout the years, they kept on doubling down their efforts rather than letting up,” he said.

“That is grotesque and sadistic - and no doubt they were hoping for a total and very public breakdown.”

In his witness statement, the Duke of Sussex alleged that it was agreed royals would bring claims at the end of a series of cases about phone hacking and their cases would be resolved without trials.

Harry said: “My brother and I were also told by either the institution’s solicitor, or someone else from the institution, that there was no possibility of either of us bringing a claim against NGN for phone hacking at that time.

“The rationale behind this was that a secret agreement had been reached between the institution and senior executives at NGN whereby members of the royal family would bring phone hacking claims only at the conclusion of the mobile telephone voicemail interception litigation and at that stage the claims would be admitted or settled with an apology.”

Harry claimed the agreement was to avoid having a member of the royal family going into a witness box and describing the “private and highly sensitive voicemails” that had been intercepted.

He continued: “The institution was incredibly nervous about this and wanted to avoid at all costs the sort of reputational damage that it had suffered in 1993 when The Sun and another tabloid had unlawfully obtained and published details of an intimate telephone conversation that took place between my father and step-mother in 1989, while he was still married to my mother.”

Harry later said that the alleged agreement “including the promises from NGN for delayed resolution was, obviously, a major factor as to why no claim was brought by me at that time”.

The duke also said: “To say that I was frustrated and disappointed would be something of an understatement.

A “secret agreement” was allegedly reached between the institution of the royal family and the publisher of The Sun to prevent William and Harry from bringing phone hacking claims, the High Court has been told.

The Duke of Sussex is suing News Group Newspapers (NGN), publisher of The Sun and the now-defunct News Of The World, over alleged unlawful information gathering at its titles.

On Tuesday, NGN made a bid for a judge to throw out the case, as well as a similar claim brought against the publisher by actor Hugh Grant.

Harry’s lawyers said the bid is an attempt to go behind a “secret agreement” between the royal family as an institution and NGN - or its parent companies News UK and News Corp - which the duke was informed of in 2012.

The High Court in London heard this alleged agreement prevented the duke and the Prince of Wales from bringing phone hacking claims against the publisher at the time.

However, NGN has denied Harry’s claim that there was a agreement.

Hundreds of Australians, New Zealanders, and military personnel watched as William laid a wreath of red poppies and white flowers at Wellington Arch, Hyde Park Corner, London.

The message on the wreath read: “In memory of those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom.”

He wore a red poppy during the service and bowed briefly to the wreath before standing in silent tribute for a few moments.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were spotted enjoying themselves at a Lakers game ahead of the Duke of Sussex’s continued legal battle against the UK press.

While the hearing is taking place today at the High Court in London, Harry is watching the proceedings via videolink.

In 2012, Murdoch’s British newspaper group issued an unreserved apology for widespread hacking carried out by journalists at the News of the World which the media mogul had shut down amid a backlash.

But it has always rejected any unlawful activity at the Sun which was previously edited by Rebekah Brooks, now chief executive of his British arm, News UK. She has always denied knowledge of phone-hacking and was found not guilty in the 2014 trial of involvement.

Last week, Murdoch’s Fox Corp. settled a U.S. defamation lawsuit for $787.5 million, but reports suggest that figure is dwarfed by the British phone-hacking scandal.

In 2021, the media industry magazine, the Press Gazette, estimated that phone-hacking had cost NGN more than 1 billion pounds ($1.24 billion), and in its accounts last year the group stated that it might need to spend a further 100 million pounds.

The case is one of four Harry is pursuing against British newspapers.

In a submission to the court, Harry’s legal team said the reason he had not brought action before was because a deal had been agreed between NGN and the “institution” - Buckingham Palace - to hold off any claims until the conclusion of other outstanding phone-hacking litigation.

“In responding to this bid by NGN to prevent his claims going to trial, the claimant has had to make public the details of this secret agreement, as well as the fact that his brother, His Royal Highness, Prince William, has recently settled his claim against NGN behind the scenes,” his lawyers said.

They added NGN had settled with William “for a very large sum of money in 2020”. William’s office said it could not comment on ongoing legal proceedings.

During a criminal trial brought against News of the World journalists and others in 2014, its former royal editor Clive Goodman said in the mid-2000s he had hacked the voicemails of Harry as well as those of William, and William’s wife Kate.

Her phone was hacked 155 times, William’ 35 and Harry’s nine times, Goodman said.

In his witness statement, quoted by his lawyers, the prince said the secret deal was struck to “avoid the situation where a member of the royal family would have to sit in the witness box and recount the specific details of the private and highly sensitive voicemails that had been intercepted”.

Harry said Buckingham Palace “wanted to avoid at all costs” the reputational damage caused by publication in the 1990s of details of an “intimate telephone conversation” between Charles and the now Queen Consort Camilla, when his father was still married to his mother Princess Diana.

The document also said Harry’s grandmother, the late Queen Elizabeth, had been involved in discussions and in 2017 had given her permission for him to pursue his case.

In his submission, NGN’s lawyer Anthony Hudson denied there was any “secret agreement” between the publisher and the royal family. He argued that, even if there was a deal, it did not affect their case that the lawsuit was brought too late.

Harry, who now lives in California, was not in court, but would be watching proceedings by videolink, his lawyer David Sherborne said.

In part of a witness statement prepared for Tuesday’s hearing, the Duke of Sussex said: “My brother and I were also told by either the institution’s solicitor ... or someone else from the institution that there was no possibility of either of us bringing a claim against NGN for phone hacking at that time.

“The rationale behind this was that a secret agreement had been reached between the institution and senior executives at NGN whereby members of the royal family would bring phone hacking claims only at the conclusion of the Mobile Telephone Voicemail Interception Litigation and at that stage the claims would be admitted or settled with an apology.

“The reason for this was to avoid the situation where a member of the royal family would have to sit in the witness box and recount the specific details of the private and highly sensitive voicemails that had been intercepted by Clive Goodman.

“The institution was incredibly nervous about this and wanted to avoid at all costs the sort of reputational damage that it had suffered in 1993 when The Sun and another tabloid had unlawfully obtained and published details of an intimate telephone conversation that took place between my father and stepmother in 1989, while he was still married to my mother.

“This agreement, including the promises from NGN for delayed resolution was, obviously, a major factor as to why no claim was brought by me at that time.”

It is the latest hearing in a number of legal battles being fought by the Duke of Sussex against UK press organisations taking place at the High Court in London.

Harry is suing News Group Newspapers (NGN), publisher of The Sun and the now-defunct News Of The World, over alleged unlawful information gathering at its titles.

NGN will ask a judge to throw out the case, as well as a similar claim brought against the publisher by actor Hugh Grant.

The Prince of Wales has allegedly recently settled a claim over phone hacking against publisher News Group Newspapers, the High Court has been told.