London: Prince Harry has lost a major court claim against a British publisher over his personal privacy, in a sweeping defeat he shares with celebrities such as Elton John and Liz Hurley.
The High Court ruled that the Duke of Sussex and the other claimants had failed to prove their allegations, and it dismissed their claims on all counts.
Harry and others accused The Daily Mail, one of the country’s most powerful newspapers, of using illegal ploys such as phone hacking to get its news.
They also claimed it used “blagging” – a practice in which a journalist makes false claims to trick people into divulging information.
Hurley and John joined Harry in the case, which was estimated to cost £38.8 million ($78 million) in legal bills and required weeks of testimony in court earlier this year.
The owner of the media outlet, Associated Newspapers, vigorously denied any wrongdoing over stories that appeared between 1993 and 2018.
The decision has implications for Jonathan Vere Harmsworth, the hereditary peer Viscount Rothermere, whose great-grandfather founded The Daily Mail in 1896.
One claim against the paper was that its journalists unlawfully obtained details of a “private and intimate” conversation between Harry and his brother, Prince William, about photographs of the death of their mother, Princess Diana, in a car crash in 1997.
Another was that journalists unlawfully gained details of a private discussion between Harry and William about a memorial for their mother that involved help from John. The musician sang a version of Candle in the Wind at Princess Diana’s funeral in 1997.
Harry also claimed the newspaper gathered information about his relationships with girlfriends before he met Meghan Markle, whom he married in 2018.
The barrister representing all the claimants, David Sherborne, cited text messages, invoices, payment details and other records to argue the company knew the information was obtained by breaking the law.
The case revived the questions about journalism that arose during the investigation into phone hacking by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp more than a decade ago. News Corp was not a party to the current case. Harry settled a claim against News Corp and its London tabloid, The Sun, for an estimated £10 million early last year.
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David Crowe is Europe correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via X or email.
