Prince Harry’s inner circle of friends were not ‘tight-lipped’ and gave information to journalists, a former diary editor told the High Court on Thursday.
Katie Nicholl said the Duke of Sussex‘s pals spoke to her when she worked at The Mail on Sunday.
The journalist, 48, was giving evidence at a privacy case brought against TMOS and the Daily Mail by Harry and six other public figures.
Associated Newspapers, publisher of both titles, denies allegations its journalists commissioned private detectives to hack voicemails, intercept landline calls and ‘blag’ their private information.
Ms Nicholl told the court: ‘I didn’t need to sit at home using unlawful information gathering because I had very good sources close to Prince Harry who were talking to me.’
David Sherborne, acting for the duke and other claimants, said Harry and his friends did not trust journalists and were careful to remain ‘tight-lipped’ around them.
But Ms Nicholl replied: ‘They were not all tight-lipped. They certainly were not. I had very good sources in the inner circle.’
Prince Harry is pictured arriving at the Royal Courts of Justice in central London on January 19
She said she met Harry when he was a young man and had seen him often at social events and at nightclubs he favoured, including Boujis and Amika.
In 2003, when she was at a celebrity party at Kensington Roof Gardens, west London, she said Harry invited her to join him at a party in a private room.
She said: ‘Prince Harry was standing in the doorway of a private room, smoking a cigarette.
‘He said, “Hello, would you like to come to my party?” and I said, “Yes please, because the one I’m at is pretty dull”… Not only did he invite me in, he introduced me to his friends and I stayed there for the entire evening.’
During his evidence, Harry said he could ‘vaguely remember’ Ms Nicholl at the party but denied he had invited her.
The journalist, who has written several books about the Royal Family, said: ‘I absolutely remember that moment.
‘It’s not all the time that you get invited into a party by one of the most famous princes in the world.’
The trial continues.