Prince Harry Loses Case Against Daily Mail Publisher in Major Defeat

Prince Harry, the estranged younger son of King Charles, and other high-profile British figures on Tuesday lost their privacy lawsuits against the Daily Mail’s publisher, in a major defeat for the royal in his long-running legal battles with the British press.

Harry, who lives in California but was in Britain when the High Court in London delivered its ruling, has pursued several legal cases against British newspapers and has repeatedly accused sections of the media of abusing their power.

The 41-year-old prince has long blamed the press for the 1997 Paris car crash that killed his mother, Princess Diana, and has drawn comparisons between the treatment of his late mother and that of his American wife, Meghan. He fought back tears while giving evidence in January, saying the Daily Mail had made Meghan’s life “an absolute misery”.

Harry had previously secured victories against the publisher of the Daily Mirror and settled a claim against Rupert Murdoch’s British newspaper group. However, Tuesday’s ruling represents a significant setback in his wider campaign against the media.

“His campaign against the other newspaper groups has largely been successful, but I think it’s time to reappraise what the media today is, and it’s very different to the media of the time of Princess Diana,” media lawyer Mark Stephens told Reuters.

Harry described the judgment as “a complete and obvious whitewash” in a statement issued on behalf of himself and fellow claimant Doreen Lawrence, whose son Stephen was murdered in a notorious racist attack in 1993.

Associated Newspapers, the publisher of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday, said the ruling was “an overwhelming victory for the Daily Mail and its journalists and for a free press generally”. It added that it would seek legal costs following a trial that it said had cost more than £50 million ($66.8 million).

Claims of Unlawful Information Gathering Rejected

Harry and the other claimants, including Elton John, alleged that dozens of articles published by Associated Newspapers in the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday between the 1990s and 2011 were based on information obtained unlawfully.

Their lawyers argued that private investigators had been used to gather information, including through phone hacking, landline tapping and the deceptive acquisition of confidential personal details such as medical records — a practice known as “blagging”.

Associated Newspapers rejected the allegations as defamatory. The Daily Mail’s former editor Paul Dacre accused Harry of hypocrisy, arguing that the prince had complained about privacy breaches while also speaking publicly about the royal family.

“I feel sorry for the way a confused and angry young man has been drawn into this case,” Dacre, once one of Britain’s most influential newspaper editors, said in a statement.

Delivering the ruling, Judge Matthew Nicklin said the claimants needed to prove that information published about them had been obtained unlawfully, adding that suspicion alone was insufficient.

Dismissing Harry’s claim relating to an article about his relationship with former girlfriend Chelsy Davy, the judge said: “Privacy alone does not prove unlawful acquisition.”

Harry and Lawrence maintained in their statement that they had presented evidence they believed was compelling and remained so.


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