EXCLUSIVE: Prince Harry has spoken out for the first time since his phone hacking trial against British tabloids drew to a close – and a telling comment about the late Princess Diana saw his “mask slip”.
A leading body language expert has deciphered Prince Harry’s “sadness”, “anger” and apparent lack of “confidence” when discussing his late mum, Princess Diana.
In a soon to be screened ITV interview, which forms part of tonight’s Tabloids On Trial TV show, the prince didn’t hold back when questioned about his family. Body language expert Darren Stanton gave Express.co.uk the lowdown on which signals he gave during the interview.
“He shows sadness when talking about Princess Diana, which quickly turns into anger, his eyes become more squinted and he looks forward and pierces his lips when he thinks about his mum,” he explained. “He is being authentic and speaking from the heart. He wants to speak his truth and about his experiences.”
Meanwhile, he added that Harry appeared “worried about the consequences of the interview”, but felt that he was “operating on a much higher principle”. “His intention for the greater good outweighs any doubt he has or a lack of confidence,” Darren continued.
“He is being fuelled by the passion of wanting to speak the truth,” he added. “I don’t think he is confident but he feels it is important for him to speak on this.”
Darren feels he saw a dramatic shift in Harry’s body language and emotion when the conversation changed from his rift with senior members of the royal family, including his dad King Charles, to his beloved mum.
“When he is asked about his rift with the royals, he looks up and left which means he is accessing pictures of things that have happened in the past,” he explained.
“When people remember things they look up and left so he is thinking about his past with the Royal Family but when he goes back to talking about his mother we see him really shift in emotion.”
Darren also suggested that Harry’s grievances were not related to financial gain but to “principles”.
He elaborated: “Prince Harry is what we call a kinesthetic person, they are in touch with their feelings and tend to trust their gut and won’t make decisions quickly.
“When he is speaking about his reasoning for the interview, he is operating from his inner emotion – it is important to him. It’s not about money, it’s about principle.”
Prince Harry’s court battle saw him receive £140,000 in damages over 15 of the 33 Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) articles he complained about after a High Court Judge ruled last December that information had been unlawfully gathered about him.
In a statement, an MGN spokesperson said: “We welcomed the judgement in December 2023 that gave the business the necessary clarity to move forward from events that took place many years ago.
“Where historical wrongdoing took place, we apologise unreservedly, have taken full responsibility and paid compensation.”
He told ITV journalist Rebecca Barry that the result was a “monumental victory” following a period of “paranoia” and “fear”.
