Prince Harry is getting emotional in the hot seat.
The Duke of Sussex took the stand for a second time in his phone hacking trial against a British tabloid publisher on Wednesday and appeared “slightly choked up” during questioning, the BBC reports.
Harry’s lawyer David Sherbone is said to have asked the royal how he was coping with two days of testifying, to which the dad of two reportedly paused before answering: “It’s a lot.”
Courtroom sketches reportedly depicted the duke slumped in his seat with his head down.
Prince Harry, Meghan Markle & Her Mom Doria Ragland Stun At Event In New York City
View GalleryHarry made history this week as the first high-ranking British royal to testify in court in 130 years. He is suing the Mirror Group Newspapers for allegedly using illegal information gathering methods in its reporting about Harry in more than 100 published articles between 1996 and 2010.
The company has denied the claims, arguing that its publications used lawfully obtained documents, public statements and source information for the stories in question.
In May, Mirror Group Newspapers issued an apology to Harry for one instance of unlawful information gathering in a 2004 article that is not part of the duke’s lawsuit.
“Some of the editors and journalists … are responsible for a lot of pain, upset and in some cases inadvertently death,” Harry reportedly claimed in his testimony on Tuesday. The royal also said he brought the suit to stop the “absolute intrusion and hate” against him and wife Meghan Markle, per the BBC.
The 38-year-old has additionally alleged that the Mirror Group negatively impacted his relationship with brother Prince William, claiming that a voicemail he once left the future king about a proposed meeting with their late mother Princess Diana’s former butler was hacked for a story.
“The article accurately sets out the position that my brother was open to fixing a meeting with Paul to discuss his ongoing exposés about our mother, however I had made up my mind about the kind of person I thought Paul was and was firmly against meeting him at this point in my life,” Harry testified, adding, “This sort of article seeds distrust between brothers.”
Harry has long been outspoken about how his relationship with the media is connected to his mental health, particularly ongoing grief and trauma he’s experienced since Diana’s death. The princess passed away in a 1997 Paris car crash that occurred while she was being pursued by paparazzi.
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