Prince Harry 'won't bring my wife back' to the UK over safety concerns due to tabloids

Prince Harry has opened up about how British tabloids' incessant coverage of his life, some of which involved illegally obtained private information, has caused safety concerns for his family, including his wife, Duchess Meghan.

Speaking to ITV News correspondent Rebecca Barry in the one-hour documentary "Tabloids on Trial," which aired Thursday night in the U.K., the Duke of Sussex for the first time publicly discussed being handed a win in his phone hacking lawsuit against the Daily Mirror's publisher in December, which saw a court award him around $180,000 in damages.

Harry elaborated on his motivations for spearheading the charge against media companies such as publishers for the Daily Mail, The Sun and the Daily Mirror, which he's accused of employing illegal tactics to dig up information for tabloid scoops.

"They pushed me too far. It got to a point where you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't," he said of taking legal action against publishers. "I don't think there's anybody else in the world that is better suited and placed to be able to see this through than myself.

"It's still dangerous and all it takes is one lone actor, one person who reads this stuff, to act on what they have read — and whether it's a knife or acid or whatever it is ... these are things that are a genuine concern for me. It's one of the reasons why I won't bring my wife back to this country."

“I'm trying to get justice for everybody," Harry said. "This is a David versus Goliath situation — the Davids are the claimants, and the Goliath is this vast media enterprise."

Prince Harry says 'it's clearly not in my interest' to sue media companies

The duke – who is King Charles' and the late Princess Diana's younger son – also shut down speculation that the lawsuits he has filed were retaliatory.

"It is clear now to everybody that the risk of taking on the press and the risk of such retaliation from them by taking these claims forward, it's clearly not in my interest to do that. Look at what has happened in the last four years to me, my, wife and my family, right?" Harry said. "So that was a very hard decision for me to make, which is: How bad is it gonna get?"

Prince Harry, who made waves by testifying in court last June during his case against Mirror Group Newspapers, is still involved in ongoing cases against Rupert Murdoch's News Group Newspapers, which publishes The Sun as well as the now-shuttered News of the World, and Associated Newspapers, publisher of the Daily Mail. Last year, a London High Court judge allowed the duke's lawsuit against NGN to proceed to trial.

The Sun and the Daily Mail have denied accusations of wrongdoing.

Harry claimed employees at the Murdoch-owned tabloids hacked his phone and hired investigators over a period that spanned two decades.

"If I can get to trial, then we're talking over a decade's worth of evidence, most of which has never ever been known to the public," Harry said of the NGN lawsuit. "That's the goal."

He added, "That evidence needs to come to the surface. And then after that the police can make their mind up because this country and the British public deserve better."

Why Harry, Meghan moved to California: 'Toxic’ British press 'was destroying my mental health'

Fight against the tabloids is 'a central piece' to 'rift' with royal family

Harry admitted that being so vocal in his fight against British tabloids has impacted his relationship with the royal family, which includes brother Prince William, the heir to the throne.

"It's certainly a central piece to it," he said. "That's a hard question to answer because anything I say about my family results in a torrent of abuse from the press."

Harry continued, "I've made it very clear that this is something that needs to be done. It would be nice if we did it as a family. I believe that, again, from a service standpoint and when you're in a public role that these are the things we should be doing for the greater good. But I'm doing this for my reasons."

"For me, the mission continues," he said. "But it has, yes. It's caused, as you say, part of a rift."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Prince Harry 'won't bring' Meghan Markle to UK due to the tabloids