Prince Harry’s privacy lawsuit against Daily Mail reaches final phase

(MENAFN) Britain’s Prince Harry appeared in court on Monday as his privacy lawsuit against the Daily Mail publisher entered its third and final phase. Harry is one of seven high-profile plaintiffs who claim the tabloid’s publisher violated their privacy through illegal methods to gather material for sensational stories, as stated by reports.

The lawsuit, filed alongside singer Elton John and actors Elizabeth Hurley and Sadie Frost, alleges that Associated Newspapers Ltd. employed private investigators to bug cars, access private records, and eavesdrop on phone calls. The publisher has dismissed the allegations as “preposterous.”

Opening the proceedings, attorney David Sherborne said the company maintained a decades-long culture of unlawful intrusion “that wrecked the lives of so many.” He added that repeated denials, alleged destruction of records, and “masses upon masses of missing documents” obstructed the claimants from uncovering the full extent of the newspapers’ actions.

“They swore that they were a clean ship,” Sherborne said. “Associated knew that these emphatic denials were not true … They knew they had skeletons in their closet.”

The case is being heard at London’s High Court and is expected to last nine weeks, with Harry scheduled to testify again, following his landmark appearance in 2023 as the first senior royal in over a century to give court testimony.

Harry previously won a ruling in 2023 against the Daily Mirror for “widespread and habitual” phone hacking. Last year, Rupert Murdoch, founder of News Corp, issued a rare apology for repeated intrusions into Harry’s life and agreed to pay significant damages to settle his privacy case.

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