Judge Dismisses Prince Harry Privacy Lawsuit Against Daily Mail Publisher

A High Court judge ruled Tuesday that Prince Harry and six other claimants failed to prove their allegations of unlawful information gathering by the publisher of the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday. Justice Matthew Nicklin dismissed the claims brought by Harry, Elton John, Elizabeth Hurley, Sadie Frost, Doreen Lawrence, Simon Hughes and David Furnish against Associated Newspapers Ltd.

The ruling followed an 11-week trial and concluded years of litigation that the parties estimated would cost around 40 million pounds in legal fees. The judge found that the claimants had not established that the roughly 50 articles at issue resulted from phone hacking, private investigators or other unlawful methods.

Associated Newspapers denied the allegations, stating that the stories were based on lawful sources including friends, royal aides and publicists. Defense counsel Antony White argued that the case rested on conjecture rather than evidence of specific unlawful acts.

The verdict was delivered remotely without a court hearing and coincided with Harry’s visit to the United Kingdom. Harry previously secured a 2023 judgment against Mirror Group Newspapers for phone hacking and settled a separate claim against The Sun’s publisher last year.