Prince Harry suggested that rumors he was fathered by a military officer were planted by the press to “oust” him from the royal family as he testified in a London court against the UK’s Daily Mirror Tuesday — becoming the most senior member of the royal family to be cross-examined since the 1890s.

The Duke of Sussex, 38, spent his teen years believing the tabloids’ suggestion that his real father was Army Major James Hewitt, he revealed in the 55-page statement released on the first day of his testimony.

“At the time, when I was 18 years old and had lost my mother just six years earlier, stories such as this felt very damaging and very real to me. They were hurtful, mean, and cruel. I was always left questioning the motives behind the stories,” he wrote of a 2002 The People story about an alleged plot to steal his DNA to confirm his paternity, The Telegraph said.

“Were the newspapers keen to put doubt into the minds of the public so I might be ousted from the Royal family?”

Prince Harry arrives at the High Court in London on June 6, 2023. AP

Prince Harry only learned in 2014 that his mother, Princess Diana, met Hewett after he was born in 1984, the outlet added.

The Duke of Sussex is suing Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) for damages, claiming its journalists opted for unethical methods to obtain information, as well as using private investigators and phone-hacking tactics.

The California-based royal showed up at court shortly before 10:30 a.m. in a black SUV. He arrived sans his wife Meghan Markle.

Looking relaxed in a navy suit atop a white shirt, Harry smiled as he entered the building after saying “good morning” to the press waiting outside.

Political satire artist Kaya Mar holds a painting portraying Britain’s Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, and his wife Britain’s Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, as members of the media gather outside the Royal Courts of Justice, Britain’s High Court, in London on June 6, 2023.

Shortly after taking the stand, the duke blasted the media’s “destructive” role throughout his childhood.

“I was a child, I was at school. These articles were incredibly invasive. Every single time one of these articles was written it would have an impact on my life, the people around me,” he told the court.

“Every one of these articles played an important role, a destructive role, in my growing up.

Prince Harry also surmised that the press’ treatment of him is symbolic of larger struggles in Britain’s culture.

Prince Harry arrives to give evidence at the Mirror Group Phone hacking trial at the Rolls Building at the High Court on June 6, 2023 in London, England. WireImage

“On a national level as, at the moment, our country is judged globally by the state of our press and our government – both of which I believe are at rock bottom,” he wrote in the lengthy statement accompanying his testimony.

“Democracy fails when your press fails to scrutinize and hold the government accountable, and instead choose to get into bed with them so they can ensure the status quo.”

Harry is expected to spend all of Tuesday on the stand, as well as at least half a day Wednesday.

The ginger-haired prince’s historic court appearance comes just a day after he decided to skip out on the first day of the trial Monday.

On Monday, Harry’s lawyer David Sherborne told the court that the duke’s relationship with his brother, Prince William, suffered “mistrust” at the hands of the Mirror publisher.

Harry and William – who is now Prince of Wales – have been famously estranged since Harry and Meghan stepped down as senior royals in 2020.

Harry’s relationship with his father, King Charles III, is reportedly also still very strained.

The case against Mirror Group is the first of Harry’s multiple lawsuits against the media to go to trial — and one of three alleging tabloid publishers unlawfully snooped on him.

Mirror Group has maintained it had used documents, public statements, and sources to legally report on the royal.

Despite his client’s absence Monday, Sherborne told Judge Timothy Fancourt that Harry had flown from his Los Angeles home late Sunday after attending his daughter Lilibet’s second birthday, but could not attend court Monday.

“His travel arrangements are such and his security arrangements are such that it is a little bit tricky,” Sherborne told the judge.

“I’m a little surprised,” Fancourt replied, noting he had instructed Harry to be in court for the first day of the highly anticipated case.