Prince Harry has returned to London for his third and likely final legal confrontation with the British tabloid media, specifically targeting Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL), publisher of the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday. This civil case, expected to last nine weeks, alleges that ANL engaged in "unlawful information gathering" between 1993 and 2011, including phone hacking, bugging cars, and obtaining private records through deception.
Harry is one of seven high-profile claimants in the case, alongside Sir Elton John, his husband David Furnish, actors Elizabeth Hurley and Sadie Frost, Baroness Doreen Lawrence, and former Liberal Democrat minister Sir Simon Hughes. Their legal team claims ANL commissioned private investigators to snoop on them for sensational headlines, leading to "grave breaches of privacy." Harry's lawyer, David Sherborne, stated there was a "clear, systematic and sustained use of unlawful information gathering" by the newspapers.
Harry has expressed that the alleged intrusions made him "paranoid beyond belief," putting a "massive strain" on his personal relationships and causing him to feel constantly tracked. He also connects this to the media's pursuit of his mother, Princess Diana, before her death. ANL has vehemently denied all accusations, calling them "preposterous smears" and an "affront to the hard-working journalists." A verdict in this case will determine the reputations of both the media company and Harry, and who will bear potentially tens of millions of dollars in legal costs.
This legal action follows Harry's previous successful legal battles against other news publishers. In 2023, he received £140,600 in damages after a judge ruled in his favor against Mirror Group Newspapers for phone hacking. He also settled a case against Rupert Murdoch's News Group Newspapers, publisher of The Sun and the now-defunct News of the World, for an undisclosed sum. This current case against ANL is anticipated to be his last major legal challenge against the press.
