Prince Harry loses privacy claim against the media in major defeat
London: Prince Harry has lost a major lawsuit against a British publisher over his personal privacy, in a major setback that he shared with celebrities such as Elton John and Liz Hurley.
The High Court ruled that the Duke of Sussex and the other claimants had failed to prove their case and rejected their claims on all counts.
Harry and others were blamed Daily MailOne of the country’s most powerful newspapers uses illegal methods such as phone hacking to get its news.
They also alleged that he used “swearing,” a practice in which a journalist makes false claims to trick people into revealing information.
Hurley and John joined Harry in the case, which required weeks of testimony in court earlier this year and is estimated to cost £38.8 million ($78 million) in legal bills.
Associated Newspapers, which owns the media outlet, has vehemently denied any wrongdoing regarding the stories, which appeared between 1993 and 2018.
The decision will also affect Jonathan Vere Harmsworth, a hereditary peer of Viscount Rothermere, whose great-grandfather founded The Daily Mail in 1896.
One of the allegations against the newspaper was that journalists illegally obtained details of a “private and intimate” conversation between Harry and his brother Prince William about photographs of the death of their mother, Princess Diana, in a car crash in 1997.
Another was that journalists illegally obtained details of a private discussion between Harry and William regarding a memorial service for their mother, involving John’s help. The musician performed a version of Candle in the Wind at Princess Diana’s funeral in 1997.
Harry also claimed that the newspaper collected information about his relationships with his girlfriends before he met Meghan Markle, whom he married in 2018.
David Sherborne, the lawyer representing all the plaintiffs, cited text messages, invoices, payment details and other records to argue the company knew the information was obtained in violation of the law.
The case has revived questions about journalism that were raised more than a decade ago during the phone hacking investigation of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. News Corp was not a party to the present litigation. Harry launched a damages claim for nearly £10 million against News Corp and its London tabloid The Sun at the beginning of last year.
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David Crowe is the European correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect with: X or email.
