Prince Harry, Elton John and five others have lost their privacy invasion case against Associated Newspapers Limited, with a U.K. High Court judge dismissing all claims against the tabloid company on Tuesday.
The pair, as well as David Furnish, Elizabeth Hurley, Sadie Frost, Doreen Lawrence and Sir Simon Hughes, failed to prove their 2022 claims against the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday publisher, Justice Matthew Nicklin ruled. The group had accused the papers of various hacking, tapping and bugging methods for articles between 1993 through 2011.
Associated Newspapers Limited had previously denied any wrongdoing, calling the allegations “preposterous” and insisting the stories involved came from lawful sources. ANL subsequently called the ruling an “overwhelming victory” and a “magnificent vindication” on Tuesday.
The trial lasted 11 weeks, with a reported price tag of about £40 million ($53.5 million) in related legal costs.
“I think it’s fundamentally wrong [for ANL] to put us through this again when all we required is an apology and some accountability,” Prince Harry previously shared in his testimony. “It’s a horrible experience and the worst bit of it is, by standing up here, they continue to come after me and make my wife’s life an absolute misery.”
This was the Duke of Sussex’s third and final lawsuit against U.K. tabloid publishers: He received a “full and unequivocal apology” from the Murdochs’ News Group Newspapers in January after a settlement; he won a similar phone hacking case against Mirror Group Newspapers in late 2023.
