Prince Harry, the younger son of King Charles, lost the privacy lawsuit against Daily Mail’s publisher on Tuesday, in the culmination of the estranged royal’s long-time battle against British tabloids. Along with Harry, several other high-profile British figures, including singer Elton John, had brought privacy lawsuits against the publication alleging widespread unlawful behaviour.
They alleged that dozens of stories about them published by Associated Newspapers in the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday from the 1990s to 2011 had been based on information that had been obtained unlawfully, Reuters news agency reported. The suit was filed in 2022 and also included actors Elizabeth Hurley and Sadie Frost, campaigner Doreen Lawrence and former politician Sir Simon Hughes.
Harry, who was in Britain for the Invictus Games when the court passed the order, has brought several legal cases against British tabloids. He has previously sued the sued Mirror Group Newspapers for unlawful information gathering, wherein he obtained a partial victory, and brought a libel case against Associated Newspapers over an article concerning his lawsuit against the government, Variety reported.
What do we know about the lawsuit and the court’s ruling?
The judge while pronouncing the order said Harry and the others had failed to prove privacy invasion claims against the Daily Mail publisher.
While underscoring the possibility that the news might have come from legitimate sources Justice Matthew Nicklin rejected the broad inferences Harry had relied on to establish that Associated Newspapers Ltd. had engaged in unlawful activities, according to the Associated Press. The suit had sought substantial damages, with legal costs for the preparation and 11-week trial in the case estimated to be about 40 million pounds ($53.5 million).
Harry and the others had accused Associated Newspapers Ltd. of tapping their phone, intercepting voicemails and procuring personal information through deception, claims denied by the publisher as “preposterous.” The publisher said the ruling was an “overwhelming victory for the Daily Mail and its journalists.”
Harry’s earlier lawsuits against the British press
Harry had earlier brought a lawsuit against British tabloid newspaper The Mirror, wherein the court said it had found evidence of “extensive” phone hacking between 2006 and 2011. The court handed him “modest” damages of $180,000 to cover the “hurt” caused by the publisher’s “concealment” of their wrongdoing, according to Variety.
Harry had alleged that more than 30 articles The Mirror had printed about him dating back to the early 2000s had been written as a result of “unlawful information gathering,” with the judge said this was proven in 15 of the 33 cases.
The Duke of Sussex had also settled his case against Rupert Murdoch’s UK tabloids in January last year, after the News Group Newspapers agreed to pay “substantial damages” and issued an apology.
