Prince Harry has held back tears as he said the Daily Mail had made his wife Meghan Markle’s life “an absolute misery” during his appearance in ​the witness box at London’s High Court.

The Duke of Sussex, 41, and ⁠six other claimants including singer Sir Elton John are suing the Mail’s publisher Associated Newspapers for violations of their privacy from the early 1990s until the 2010s.

Associated, which also publishes the Mail on Sunday, has called the allegations “preposterous smears”, saying its journalists had legitimate sources for information, including from the celebrities’ friends and acquaintances.

Having become in 2023 the first royal in 130 years to give evidence in court during another ‌of his lawsuits ​against the press, Harry, the younger son of the King, gave a combative response to questions from Associated’s lawyer Antony ‍White. But he became emotional when he was asked about the case’s impact.

“I think it is fundamentally wrong to have to put all of us through this again when all we were asking for is an apology and some accountability,” he said.

“It is a horrible experience and the worst of it is that by sitting up here and taking a stand against them … they continue to come after me.”

Choking ​up, the Duke of Sussex said: “They have made my wife’s life an absolute misery.”

Earlier he ‌repeatedly rejected claims from White that its papers’ journalists were close to his “leaky” social circle.

“For the avoidance of doubt, I am not friends with any of these ​journalists and I never have been,” Harry said in often tetchy exchanges with White.

“My social circles were not leaky. ‍I want to make that absolutely clear.”

The Duke of Sussex gave evidence evidence on day three of the trial. Photo: AAP

The prince’s case centres on 14 articles his legal team says were the product of unlawful information gathering, including by hacking voicemail messages, bugging landlines and obtaining private information ​by ​deception, known as “blagging”.

Associated’s lawyer White said the information ​in the articles was legitimately obtained. He put it to Harry that ​a former royal editor of the Mail on Sunday, Katie Nicholl, was part of his social group.

“If the sources were so good and she was hanging out with all my friends, then why was she using private investigators who have been connected to all the unlawful information gathering?” Harry said.

The prince said he spoke to journalists and tried to be civil, but felt he had little choice despite feeling they had “commercialised my private life”.

“These are people we were forced to work with, you had to have some kind of relationship with them … knowing who they are, ‍knowing full well the kind of stories they have written about me,” Harry said.