Drafts of Harry’s 2023 memoir, Spare, and messages with the book’s ghostwriter seem to have been “destroyed,” a judge said

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Prince Harry’s tabloid lawsuit keeps getting messier.

In the latest turn of events, the Duke of Sussex was ordered to explain how potential evidence related to the suit against The Sun, News Group Newspapers (NGN) has gone missing—specifically drafts of his 2023 memoir, Spare, and messages with the book’s ghostwriter, J.R. Moehringer.

Justice Fancourt said he’s seen “troubling evidence that a large number of potentially relevant documents and confidential messages between the Duke and the ghostwriter of Spare were destroyed sometime between 2021 and 2023, well after this claim was underway,” per The Telegraph.

The judge said the lack of documentation was “rather remarkable” and gave him “cause for concern,” the outlet reported.

The judge has since asked that Harry show a witness statement explaining “what happened to the messages between himself and his ghostwriter and whether any attempts were made to retrieve them.”

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Harry’s attorney David Sherborne accused NGN of a “transparent, old-fashioned fishing expedition,” and claimed Harry has provided all the evidence he’s been asked for, including having his California home physically searched and allowing inquiries to be made to the “Royal Household” about relevant documents, according to court papers obtained by People.

The royal is suing NGN over claims of invasions of privacy by their journalists and investigators between 1994 and 2016.

Harry has also been embroiled in some other legal battles as of late. The prince filed four lawsuits against newspaper publishers in the U.K. over allegations of phone hacking and other acts, and he recently lost his legal bid to have his police security in the U.K. covered by the government (after it was reduced following his decision to step down as a senior royal).