‘The tabloids effectively murdered Princess Diana’: Hugh Grant claims press tearing Meghan to pieces

Hugh Grant has backed Harry and Meghan’s move to Canada, saying that the tabloid press are responsible for ‘murdering’ his mother.

Mr Grant told a US radio show: ‘I’m rather on Harry’s side. The tabloid press effectively murdered his mother, now they’re tearing his wife to pieces. I think as a man, it’s his job to protect his family, so I’m with him.’ 

The Hollywood star was referring to Princess Diana’s fatal car crash in Paris in 1997 when her chauffeur was pursued through a tunnel by paparazzi.

It comes just months after Harry made an extraordinary attack on the press in which he described his ‘deepest fear’ was his ‘wife falling victim to the same powerful forces’ that his mother faced.

Mr Grant, who was speaking on a US radio show, said: ‘I’m rather on Harry’s side. The tabloid press effectively murdered his mother, now they’re tearing his wife to pieces. I think as a man, it’s his job to protect his family, so I’m with him’

In a statement in October, Harry said: ‘My deepest fear is history repeating itself. I’ve seen what happens when someone I love is commoditised to the point that they are no longer treated or seen as a real person.

‘I lost my mother and now I watch my wife falling victim to the same powerful forces.’ 

In the same month Meghan told ITV during the Sussexes tour of southern Africa that friends had warned her about the British tabloids ‘destroying’ her life. 

‘When I first met my now husband, my friends were really happy because I was so happy. But my British friends said to me: ‘I’m sure he’s great. But you shouldn’t do it because the British tabloids will destroy your life.”

Mr Grant, who gave evidence at the Leveson Inquiry into press standards, has been a constant campaigner against newspaper intrusion. 

The Love Actually star has campaigned for press intrusion for many years and told the radio host his own relationship with the British tabloids was ‘very poor.’

In a statement in October, Harry launched an attack on the media, saying: 'I lost my mother and now I watch my wife falling victim to the same powerful forces' (pictured: with Meghan for their engagement photo in November 2017)

In a statement in October, Harry launched an attack on the media, saying: ‘I lost my mother and now I watch my wife falling victim to the same powerful forces’ (pictured: with Meghan for their engagement photo in November 2017)

It comes as rapper Stormzy also made strident claims while talking to a broadcaster while across the Atlantic.

Speaking on the Hot 97 radio station this week, the musician Eamonn Holmes to ‘get the f*** out of here’ after the This Morning host called Meghan Markle ‘uppity’.

The Grime star said: ‘This whole royal family thing, I had no idea it was so deep.

‘I’m not super into the royal family… I look at it and I think, Meghan, she’s a sweet girl, she’s a sweet woman, she’s a lovely woman.

Speaking to radio station Hot 97, Stormzy has slammed Eamonn Holmes after his comments about Meghan Markle

Speaking to radio station Hot 97, Stormzy has slammed Eamonn Holmes after his comments about Meghan Markle

‘She does her thing, I ain’t heard her say nothing crazy, and they just hate her.’

The 26-year-old rapper then directly referenced comments previously made by Mr Holmes, who had called her ‘uppity’, and then in a further tirade ‘manipulative’, ‘awful’ and ‘spoilt’.

He said: ‘Bro, she’s black, that’s what you’re talking about … Just get the f***k out of here.’ 

He continued: ‘If I told someone write a list as to why you hate Meghan Markle, the list is rubbish. 

‘There’s nothing credible to it but there’s an obsession with the Royal Family.’ 

The Blinded by Your Grace hitmaker has previously spoken out about racism in the UK.

The rapper previously suggested he would find accepting an MBE or OBE uncomfortable because of Britain’s ‘dark’ colonial legacy.

He has also been critical of Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the content of his journalism before he entered politics.

Stormzy told Italy’s La Repubblica: ‘If the top person can openly say this racist thing – the ‘piccaninies’ remarks, ‘watermelon smiles’, comparing Muslim women to a letterbox.

‘If that is our figurehead, the top man, the leader we have to follow and he openly says these things, he encourages hate.’ 

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk