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Prince Harry is in court and the internet wants to know why.

UK Google searches for "Prince Harry" + "court" have risen by 5,000% in the past week, showing huge interest in the case.

Read on to find out why.

Why is Prince Harry in court?

Prince Harry and three other people claim that newspaper publisher The Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) used illegal methods to gather information about him, which they passed to journalists who then wrote stories about him to help sell more newspapers and make money.

MGN denies that is what happened and says it did not act unlawfully.

Prince Harry says the newspaper group hacked into his phone messages and sent private investigators after him when he was a teenager at school.

Phone-hacking is against the law, and journalists have been sent to jail in the past for doing it.

Which court is he in?

Prince Harry is in the High Court, one of the three highest courts in the UK. It deals with civil cases, like the one being brought by the prince, whose official title is now the Duke of Sussex.

A civil case means there is no jury, which is a panel of 12 members of the public who decide whether a person is guilty or not guilty of a crime.

Instead, a civil case is heard by a judge who will decide damages, which is money. The judge can order the person or people, they feel are in the wrong to pay damages to the person or people they believe are in the right.

The duke is suing MGN and hopes to prove it used illegal methods to report stories about him.

What is happening in court?

This week Prince Harry is being cross-examined, which means he is being asked questions about his claims, so the judge can decide whether or not they are true.

He is the first senior royal to give evidence in court in more than 130 years.

He is being cross-examined by The Mirror Groups' lawyer, Andrew Green.

Cross-examination allows the other side to ask questions of the person making allegations against them.

Prince Harry has been asked about what phones he had, and some of the places he went, in an attempt to find out what journalists might have known about him and how they might have gained that information.

Why is the case important to the royal family?

Prince Harry is making history as the last time a senior member of the royal family went to court to be cross-examined was in the case of Edward the Prince of Wales in 1891. The prince won his case and went on to become King Edward VII.

Prince Harry has also been in the news a lot recently after releasing a book talking about his life growing up in the royal family, and saying how difficult it was for him.