Prince Harry "should be known as the Minister of Fiction" and wants "to control our speech," according to Samantha Markle's attorney.
Meghan Markle's half sister is suing her for libel over comments made during the couple's Netflix series Harry & Meghan, broadcast in December 2022.
She lost the case at Federal Court in Florida but has gone to the Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit hoping to breathe new life into the lawsuit.
One sidebar to the main legal argument though has been the visible irritation of Meghan's legal team at Samantha's references to her pre-marriage name "Markle" rather than her royal title the "Duchess of Sussex," which they described in filings as "erroneous."
And in their latest filing, Samantha's team referred to Harry using Prince William's title, Prince of Wales.
After Newsweek highlighted the discrepancy, Samantha's attorney fired off a broadside against Harry.
Peter Ticktin, of the Ticktin Law Group, told Newsweek: "To most of us, Americans, we couldn't give a tinker's damn as to whether that prince is the Duke of Wales, the Duke of Sussex, or the Duke of Earl.
"In fact, I wish I could say it was simply a spelling mistake when he should have been the Duke of Wails.
"In all seriousness, we have a guy here in the United States who believes our 1st Amendment is 'Bonkers' meaning crazy, while he is one of 16 governors of a group called the Aspen Institute (the Ministry of Truth) who decide which statements on our internet should be deleted as misinformation."
Prince Harry was a commissioner with The Aspen Institute's Commission on Information Disorder, which sought to help government, the private sector and civil society respond to the spread of false information online, its website says.
"So, this foreigner, if we ever gave out titles in America, should be known as the Minister of Fiction," Ticktin said. "This Duke is here as our guest, and his goal seems to be to control our speech."
He took aim at Harry and Meghan's work around protecting children from the harm on the internet after they launched The Archewell Foundation Parents' Network in August.
"The Sussex Squad smear, threaten, and set out to destroy anyone who criticizes Meghan or Harry," Ticktin said. "They are the evil which Harry pretends to be against."
Harry and Meghan gave an interview to CBS Sunday Mornings to promote the launch of the parents' network in August when they talked about the risk of suicide among young people triggered by social media.
"One of the scariest things that we've learnt over the course of the last 16, 17 years that social media's been around, and more so recently, is the fact that it could happen to absolutely anybody," Harry said.
"We always talk about in the olden days if your kids were under your roof, you knew what they were up to; at least they were safe, right?
"And now, they could be in the next-door room on a tablet or on a phone and can be going down these rabbit holes. And before you know it, within 24 hours, they could be taking their life."
Jack Royston is Newsweek's chief royal correspondent based in London. You can find him on X (formerly Twitter) at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.
Do you have a question about King Charles III, William and Kate, Meghan and Harry, or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email royals@newsweek.com. We'd love to hear from you.
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