Hugh Grant Backs Prince Harry: The Tabloid Press ‘Murdered His Mother’

Hugh Grant fully supports Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s decision to “step back” from their royal duties, live part-time in Canada and gain financial independence.

On Andy Cohen’s Sirius XM show “Radio Andy,” posted on YouTube on Wednesday, the British actor empathized with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex — particularly the media attention they receive.

“I’m rather on Harry’s side,” Grant said during the interview, which can be seen below. “The tabloid press effectively murdered his mother, now they’re tearing his wife to pieces.”

Grant was referring to the tragic death of Harry’s mother, Princess Diana, who was killed at age 36 after a car crash in Paris. A swarm of paparazzi was pursuing the car Diana was in, and her driver, Henri Paul (who was later found to be drunk) lost control of the vehicle and eventually collided with a pillar.

Diana was injured but still alive after the crash. Prince Harry has been vocal about his disgust with the photographers who contributed to the accident and their behavior after the collision.

“She’d had quite a severe head injury but she was very much still alive on the back seat,” Harry said in the 2017 BBC documentary “Diana, 7 days.”

He added: “And those people that caused the accident, instead of helping, were taking photographs of her dying on the back seat.”

Harry also said in an October statement the paparazzi now treat his wife the way they treated his mother, waging “a ruthless campaign” against individuals “with no thought to the consequences.”

Grant has also had many negative interactions with the media, telling Cohen during his interview that his current relationship with the British tabloid press is “very poor.”

In 2018, he settled a phone-hacking lawsuit against Mirror Group Newspapers, in which he claimed the company misused “information obtained by hacking his voicemails, masquerading as other people, and surveillance” between 1998 and 2009, per the BBC.

The newspaper group apologized to Grant, saying it “deeply regretted” the acts and described them as “morally wrong.” Grant received a six-figure sum in the settlement, which he donated to the anti-hacking group Hacked Off.

“I think, as a man, it’s his job to protect his family,” Grant told Cohen of Harry on Wednesday. “So, I’m with him.”