Prince Harry targeted for standing up to paper: lawyer
Prince Harry has been subjected to a sustained campaign of attacks for taking on the powerful Daily Mail for intrusion into his privacy, his lawyer has told a UK court that he and others will sue the newspaper’s publisher.
The Duke of Sussex, 41, and six other plaintiffs, including singer Elton John, are suing the Mail’s publisher, Associated Newspapers, in the High Court over invasions of their privacy spanning more than two decades since the early 1990s.
The allegations include hacking voicemail messages, tapping landlines and “blagging”, which means obtaining private information through deception.
Associated says the allegations are denigrated by saying the journalists had legitimate sources of information, including celebrities’ gossipy social circles.
Harry’s lawyer, David Sherborne, said that “no one has sold more copies than Harry” for tabloids in the United Kingdom, noting that the press pays great attention to the royal family, especially exclusive news about the prince’s private life.
Sherborne added that the stories focused “in a deeply intrusive and damaging way on the relationships he formed, or rather attempted to form, in the years before he met his now wife, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex.”
Sherborne said the fourteen articles in question included stories about Harry being asked to be godfather to his former nanny’s child, details about his travel plans and private personal information about his ex-girlfriend Chelsy Davy.
The lawyer said this was causing “distress and paranoia” for Harry as the prince watched the court.
“Given what we’ve seen, is it any wonder that he feels this way, or that he feels, as he explains, that he’s enduring a sustained campaign of attacks against him for daring to stand up to Associated?” said Sherborne.
Harry could begin testifying earlier than expected on Wednesday after opening presentations were completed ahead of schedule.
In 2023, she became the first royal to take the witness stand in the UK in 130 years in her lawsuit against another tabloid group.
His latest case is part of a very personal struggle for the prince, who lost his mother Diana in a car crash as a child while being pursued by paparazzi in 1997.
His partying habits, pre-marital girlfriends, fractious family relationships and departure to live in the United States have long been a staple of the UK media.
Associated says stories about Harry originate from contacts, press officials or other legitimate sources.
“Associated has made a statement, through a long line of witnesses, that its journalists had obtained more than 50 articles which the plaintiffs alleged were the product of illegal information gathering,” his lawyer Antony White told the court, promising a “persuasive explanation of the use of lawful sources”.
As well as Harry, John and the other plaintiffs – John’s husband David Furnish, actors Liz Hurley and Sadie Frost, anti-racism campaigner Doreen Lawrence and former MP Simon Hughes – will also testify over nine weeks.
Detailing John’s situation, Sherborne said the Mail “obtained a copy of their son’s birth certificate before they did” for a 2010 article about the singer and her husband David Furnish having a child through surrogacy in the US.
Associated denies that the information was obtained illegally.
