Several of Prince Harry’s old email addresses once used in his younger years were detailed in legal proceedings for his UK lawsuit involving Rupert Murdoch’s tabloids.
Last year, The Telegraph, referencing Prince Harry’s case against News Group Newspapers (NGN), reported Prince Harry had used three email addresses before 2014 – one of which was reported to be ‘spikewales@hotmail.com’.
In his bombshell memoir, Spare, Harry says the “Spike” part of the nickname came about when he was pictured back in 2003 with an echidna, which was also named Spike. A friend of Harry’s noticed a resemblance between the animal and the prince’s spiky hairstyle at the time.
Outlet, The Daily Beast, stated: “He’s apparently just like the rest of us lowly commoners when it comes to creating amusing email addresses in his younger years which, in hindsight, are a bit cringeworthy.”
As the younger son of King Charles and the late Diana, Princess of Wales, Prince Harry was born ‘Prince Henry of Wales’ – which is where the ‘Wales’ part of his email address would have derived from.
The Telegraph reported that during the case, the publisher sought the release of emails as well as text messages and WhatsApp messages sent and received by the Duke, as well as material held on two encrypted hard drives.
The Duke of Sussex and former Labour deputy leader Lord Tom Watson are currently suing NGN over allegations of unlawful information gathering.
NGN, which also ran the now-defunct News Of The World, denies any unlawful activity took place at The Sun.
Prince Harry’s privacy trial against the publishers of The Sun was due to start at 10.30am today, but was delayed twice, before barristers for both sides requested an adjournment until 10am on Wednesday.
The request was refused by Mr Justice Fancourt – who said the two sides had already had “ample time to seek to resolve their differences”.
The trial takes place at the Rolls Building in London and is due to last several weeks.
Harry first brought his lawsuit in 2019. He has said he hopes to get the truth after other claimants – including celebrities and politicians – settled to avoid risking multi-million pound legal bills, which they could have been forced to pay even if they won in court.