Prince Harry and six other high-profile individuals, including Sir Elton John and Elizabeth Hurley, lost their privacy invasion lawsuit against Associated Newspapers Ltd. (ANL), the publisher of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday. Justice Matthew Nicklin dismissed the claims, stating that the Duke of Sussex failed to provide sufficient evidence that ANL engaged in unlawful information gathering, such as phone hacking or hiring private detectives. Nicklin noted that the reporting could have stemmed from legitimate sources, finding fault with the claimants' approach of assuming unlawfulness merely because information was private and the source unexplained.
ANL had vehemently denied the allegations, labeling them as "preposterous" and insisting that the approximately 50 articles in question were based on lawful sources, including friends, royal aides, and publicists. The publisher hailed the ruling as an "overwhelming victory" and a "magnificent vindication" of its journalism. Conversely, Prince Harry, in a joint statement with anti-racism activist Doreen Lawrence, described the court's decision as a "complete and obvious whitewash" and expressed disappointment over being denied the justice and accountability he sought.
The dismissal of this case leaves Harry's trio of lawsuits against British tabloids with a mixed legacy. He had previously secured a judgment in 2023 against the Mirror Group Newspapers for phone hacking and settled another privacy invasion lawsuit with Rupert Murdoch's The Sun. However, this loss against ANL is significant, with media lawyer Mark Stephens attributing it to a lack of concrete evidence, unlike the admissions of culpability found in his earlier successful cases. The legal costs for both sides for the years of preparation and the 11-week trial are estimated to be above $67 million, which Harry and the co-claimants may now be liable for.
