Prince Harry's lawsuit against Associated Newspapers Ltd. (ANL), the publisher of the Daily Mail, has reached its conclusion with a judge's ruling. This case is the last in a series of lawsuits filed by Harry, accusing British tabloids of unlawfully snooping on his private life. The Duke of Sussex and six other high-profile claimants, including singer Elton John and actors Elizabeth Hurley and Sadie Frost, sought substantial damages, with the legal costs for the 11-week trial estimated at about $53.5 million (40 million pounds).
The claimants alleged that ANL engaged in "clear, systematic and sustained use of unlawful information gathering," including phone tapping, voicemail interception, and obtaining personal information through private investigators and deception, spanning from the 1990s to beyond 2018. ANL denied these allegations as "preposterous," arguing that the roughly 50 articles in question were based on lawful sources like friends, royal aides, and publicists. A key point of contention was the testimony of private investigator Gavin Burrows, who initially claimed to have gathered information unlawfully for tabloids but later disavowed his witness statement, alleging it was fabricated by the claimants' legal team.
Defense lawyer Antony White argued that the case relied on conjecture and inferences, asserting that reporters used "ordinary, legitimate" sources and that the claimants' social circles were "leaky." The trial also addressed the six-year statute of limitations for privacy cases, which claimants bypassed by stating they only became aware of the alleged phone hacking in 2021 after Burrows came forward. Harry has previously won a judgment against the publishers of the Daily Mirror for "widespread and habitual" phone hacking in 2023, and Rupert Murdoch’s The Sun also apologized and settled a privacy invasion lawsuit last year. The outcome of this specific lawsuit by the FT is not available in the provided search results.
