Prince Harry has reportedly arrived in the UK as he prepares to take on the Daily Mail’s publisher ahead of a high-stakes legal battle with the British media giant.
The prince’s action against the paper’s publishers, Associated Newspapers, will finally be heard at the High Court in London on Monday in what is set to be a nine-week trial.
The Duke of Sussex has a host of seven high-profile figures who have joined in his action, including Elton John, his husband David Furnish, actors Liz Hurley and Sadie Frost, and Baroness Doreen Lawrence, the mother of Stephen Lawrence, and former Liberal Democrat MP Simon Hughes.
The claimants have accused the Daily Mail of hiring private investigators to place listening devices inside cars and homes, phone hacking, paying police for information, and even commissioning burglaries.
Associated Newspapers, which is owned by the Rothermere family, has vehemently denied any wrongdoing, dismissing the allegations as “preposterous smears” and part of a wider conspiracy.
The stakes are high for all parties involved in the trial, with reputations on the line and legal costs anticipated to run into tens of millions of pounds.
Prince Harry reportedly arrived in London on Sunday and is due to give evidence on Thursday. A source close to Harry told The Telegraph he was feeling “confident and ready” for the court fight with Associated Newspapers.
The 41-year-old has consistently expressed his deep resentment of the often aggressive tactics employed by British media, a stance frequently linked to the tragic death of his mother, Princess Diana, in a 1997 car crash while being pursued by paparazzi.
Prince Harry and his American wife, Meghan, have previously cited that media harassment was one of the main factors for their decision to step down from royal duties and move to California in 2020.
This case against Associated Newspapers could prove to be Prince Harry’s most significant legal challenge, following successful actions against Mirror Group Newspapers and Rupert Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers (NGN), which resulted in damages, apologies, and admissions of wrongdoing.
In 2023, the prince won a high-court battle against the Mirror newspapers, in which a judge found “widespread and habitual” use of phone hacking at the newspapers.
Prince Harry’s claim against the Daily Mail publisher covers 14 articles that are alleged to have been obtained unlawfully, including stories about his relationships with former girlfriends Chelsy Davy, Cressida Bonas and Laura Gerard-Leigh, and an article concerning details of a party being planned by the two brothers after Princess Diana’s memorial concert.
The trial comes after the closure of News of the World in 2011 over a phone hacking scandal which led to the jailing of its former editor Andy Coulson and a public inquiry.
