Prince Harry reportedly called a journalist “sugar” and mentioned their “movie snuggles” in a series of flirty Facebook messages from more than 10 years ago.
The surprising texts resurfaced on Tuesday during a closing hearing in the Duke of Sussex’s lawsuit against the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday publisher Associated Newspapers, according to Newsweek.
In the resurfaced messages, which were exchanged between December 2011 and January 2012, Harry texted back and forth with then-Mail on Sunday journalist Charlotte Griffiths.
“It’s H,incase u were confused by name and picture!!! X,” the royal renegade, now 41, wrote in one message dated Dec. 4, 2011.
“What a fun weekend of naughtiness – can’t we all get up to no good in the countryside every weeked damn it?? Smooches,” Griffiths, now 40, responded.
Harry, whom Griffiths referred to as “Mr. Mischief” in a message, went on to ask how he “got that title” before complaining he had to “make polite conversation with strange people at a dinner” while “begging them for money for charity.”
One month later, on Jan. 22, 2012, the journalist called Harry “H bomb” and wrote that “we missed you so much at Arthur’s last week.”
“I WISH I was there sugar but unfortunately stuck in Cornwall doing Army stuff,” the duke replied with a sad face, per the resurfaced messages. “Otherwise I would have been there playing and then drinking u under the table,obvi!!”
He continued, “Just wish I could have been there…especially now that you’re there! Dou ever work?!!…. Hope you’re really well Griff…Miss our movie snuggles!! I’m off comms all week incase u think I’m being rude,keep me posted xxx xxx xxx.”
The flirty Facebook messages between Harry and Griffiths were reportedly exchanged after the prince’s relationship with Chelsy Davy but before his relationship with Cressida Bonas.
Harry dated Davy, 40, from 2004 until shortly after Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding in April 2011. He went on to date actress and model Cressida Bonas, 37, for two years from May 2012 to April 2014.
Two years after splitting from Bonas, Harry met Meghan Markle on a blind date in July 2016. The pair tied the knot in May 2018.
A rep for the Sussexes did not immediately respond to Page Six’s request for comment.
Harry launched his lawsuit against Associated Newspapers in October 2022. He accused the publishing giant of using phone hacking, wire tapping and other illicit practices to gather illegal information and invade his privacy between 1993 and 2011.
While the royal argued that the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday couldn’t have obtained the information they did via legal means, Associated Newspapers reportedly suggested they had sources within his friend group.
One of those sources was reportedly Griffiths, who served as deputy diary editor at the Mail on Sunday and has since become the outlet’s editor-at-large.
“We were all the same age and going to the same places in London at night so knew each other socially for a time,” Griffiths wrote in her witness statement.
She added, “My friends – including the group that introduced me to Prince Harry – knew that I was a journalist and had gone to work for Katie Nicholl at the Mail on Sunday.”
Meanwhile, Tuesday marked the end of the trial between Harry and Associated Newspapers. The judge overseeing the case has not yet announced his verdict.
