The Duke of Sussex has said he felt like the tabloid press was a “third party” in all of his relationships.

In court documents revealed on Tuesday, Harry said he always tried to be “the best partner” he could be, but “every woman has her limit”.

He said that the tabloid press always became involved in his relationships, and tried to ruin them.

“Whenever I have been in a relationship, I have always tried to be the best partner that I possibly could, but every woman has her limit,” he said in a witness statement.

“Unfortunately, they are not just in a relationship with me but with the entire tabloid press as a third party.

“At no point did I have a girlfriend or a relationship with anyone without the tabloids getting involved and ultimately ruining it, or trying to ruin it, using whatever unlawful means at their disposal.”

He claimed that the tabloid press felt like it “owned” him, despite him only being 5% funded by the taxpayer while he was a working royal.

“Despite the common misconception, I was no more than 5% funded by the taxpayer while I was a working royal in the UK, yet it felt as though the tabloid press thought that they owned me absolutely, and deserved to know everything there is to know about me, my life, my movements and the lives of those people who came into my orbit,” he said.

Harry claimed that the tabloid press cast him as a “thicko” and a “cheat”, and that he ended up “playing up” to the headlines they wrote about him.

“As a teenager and in my early twenties, I ended up feeling as though I was playing up to a lot of the headlines and stereotypes that they wanted to place upon me,” he said.

“It was a downward spiral, whereby the tabloids would constantly try and coax me, a ‘damaged’ young man, into doing something stupid that would make a good story and sell lots of newspapers. Looking back on it now, such behaviour on their part is utterly vile.”

He said that the tabloids hoped for him to undergo a “total and very public breakdown”.

“Despite them all knowing about what I was dealing with throughout the years, they kept on doubling down their efforts rather than letting up,” he said.

“That is grotesque and sadistic – and no doubt they were hoping for a total and very public breakdown.”

Harry is suing News Group Newspapers (NGN), publisher of The Sun and the now-defunct News Of The World, over alleged unlawful information gathering at its titles.

On Tuesday, NGN made a bid for a judge to throw out the case, as well as a similar claim brought against the publisher by actor Hugh Grant.