Harry ‘attacked media as he feared Meghan was going to walk out’

When Prince Harry issued his furious statement attacking the media in 2016 for their treatment of his then girlfriend Meghan Markle shortly after their relationship became public, some newspapers hit back at him for overstating his case.

For more than five years the real reason for the statement in November 2016 has never been fully explained.

Now, it has been claimed that Harry demanded that his office put out a statement condemning the excesses of the media while, crucially, confirming that Meghan was his girlfriend because he was afraid she would break up with him and he was panicking.

After the Sunday Express reported at the end of October 2016 that Meghan was Harry’s new girlfriend, she was subother jected to an extraordinary level of media attention at her home in Toronto.

The statement, written by Jason Knauf, Harry’s communications secretary, said that Meghan had been “subject to a wave of abuse and harassment”. It also condemned “the racial undertones of comment pieces” and “the outright sexism and racism of social media trolls and web article comments”.

A source said: “It did feel like that if the palace was not able to stand up and support his girlfriend, against some of that disgusting coverage … then who in their right mind would ever consider entering into a relationship [with him] in the future? He was very exercised about some of that coverage. He definitely felt that if nothing was done to support her, then she would be, ‘I’m not sure this is what I signed up for’.” Another said: “He was freaking out, saying, ‘She’s going to dump me’.”