Harry and Meghan writer tells cellphone hacking trial ‘I’m not their mouthpiece’
Omid Scobie co-authored 2020’s best-selling guide on Harry and Meghan, titled Finding Freedom, detailing the early years of their romance and break from the Royal Family.
The guide, a worldwide hit, was written in collaboration with folks near the couple whereas Meghan herself provided help to the authors.
However Mr Scobie, giving proof within the courtroom, insisted he doesn’t “have a vested interest” in serving to the Prince and his spouse of their authorized battles towards the media.
“I don’t have his phone number, I have never socialised with him”, he mentioned, of Harry.
“I’m literally a member of the press who has tried to do my job for years.”
Mr Scobie mentioned by giving proof he’s “giving ammunition” to those that wish to painting him because the “couple’s friend, mouthpiece, and cheerleader”.
“What I’m doing here is I’m actually making my life more difficult”, he added.
Harry and Meghan (Aaron Chown/PA)
/ PA WireMr Scobie mentioned he and co-author Carolyn Durand talked to Jason Knauf, the Royal couple’s communication secretary, as they had been writing the guide. But they had been unaware of the extent to which he had checked issues with Harry and Meghan.
“I would have had no knowledge of conversations betwen Jason and the people he worked for”, he mentioned.
In his witness assertion, Mr Scobie mentioned he did work expertise as a journalism pupil on the Daily Mirror in 2002 when Morgan was the paper’s editor.
Prince Harry is suing Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) alongside cleaning soap stars Michael Le Vell and Nikki Sanderson, and comic Paul Whitehouse’s ex-wife Fiona Wightman.
The 4 claimants allege widespread illegal newsgathering at MGN titles the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror, and The People over the course of 20 years.
Mr Scobie recalled an alleged incident throughout his work expertise stint, on the desks of the Mirror showbiz reporters who produced the 3AM gossip column.
“The editor of the newspaper, Piers Morgan, came over to talk with someone (I do not recall who) about a story in the works on Kylie Minogue and her (on-off, at the time) boyfriend James Gooding”, mentioned Mr Scobie.
“Mr Morgan was asking how confident they were in the reporting and was told that the information had come from voicemails.
“I recall being surprised to hear this at the time, which is why it stuck in my mind.”
Mr Scobie, 41, who’s the chief editor at Yahoo! News, editor-at-large at Harper’s Bazaarand a royal contributor for ABC News and Good Morning America, mentioned he was “not totally shocked” by the alleged incident with Morgan as a result of he had himself been requested to hack telephones at one other MGN title.
Piers Morgan (Dominic Lipinski/PA)
/ PA Wire“While at the Sunday People earlier in the year, I recall being given by a journalist a list of mobile numbers followed by a detailed verbal description of how to listen to voicemails, as if it were a routine newsgathering technique”, he mentioned.
“I was taken aback by what seemed completely immoral and I never carried out the task.”
Mr Scobie mentioned he advised Prince Harry’s attorneys about his recollections, and researched on-line a May 2002 showbiz story about Kylie with the headline “Can’t get you out of my bed”.
He mentioned he has been proven a £170 bill for “extensive enquiries” into “K Minogue” with a personal investigator agency he says is “known to have been involved in phone hacking”.
Mr Scobie advised the courtroom a showbiz reporter additionally had Kylie’s cellphone quantity in his palm pilot.
Morgan mentioned final week that he denies any allegations of information of cellphone hacking, calling it “lazy journalism”.
The trial continues.