King Charles III’s younger son Prince Harry – who appeared in court for the second day as he pursues his case against the Associated Newspapers – has made another claim about the royal family.

The Duke of Sussex, who is on his first visit to the UK since publication of his memoire Spare claimed royal family withheld information from him about phone hacking because they didn’t want him to bring a claim as it would “open a can of worms”.

Meghan Markle’s hubby, in a witness statement submitted before his civil claim against the media group, said that he was “conditioned to accept” his family’s rule to “never complain, never explain” when dealing with the press.

Discussing phone hacking claims against News Group Newspapers, Harry said “I became aware that I had a claim that I could bring” in 2018.

“The Institution was without a doubt withholding information from me for a long time about NGN’s phone hacking and that has only become clear in recent years as I have pursued my own claim with different legal advice and representation,” he said.

The Prince is among a group of claimants, including Sir Elton John, Liz Hurley and Sadie Frost, against Associated Newspapers accusing them of numerous breaches of privacy. The publisher denies all the allegations.

“It is not an exaggeration to say that the bubble burst in terms of what I knew in 2020 when I moved out of the United Kingdom,” said Harry.

He went on: “There was never any centralised discussion between us about who had brought claims as each office in the Institution is siloed. There is this misconception that we are all in constant communication with one another but that is not true.”