Prince Harry in court for privacy suit against tabloids

Prince Harry appears in court for his privacy lawsuit against British tabloids

Britain's Prince Harry arriving at couthouse

Associated Press

March 27, 2023 Updated 8:25 AM PT

LONDON — Prince Harry and Elton John were in a London court Monday as the lawyer for a group of British tabloids prepared to ask a judge to toss the lawsuit they brought with several other high-profile people who allege phone-tapping and other invasions of privacy.

Harry’s presence at the High Court in London is a sign of the importance he attaches to the case, one of several lawsuits the Duke of Sussex has brought against the media. The hearing is expected to last four days.

The case alleges that Associated Newspapers, which publishes titles including the Daily Mail, commissioned the “breaking and entry into private property” and engaged in unlawful acts that included hiring private investigators to bug homes and cars and record private phone conversations.

“They were the victim of numerous unlawful acts carried out by the defendant, or by those acting on the instructions of its newspapers, The Daily Mail and The Mail On Sunday,” attorney David Sherborne said in a court document.

Other plaintiffs include John’s husband, David Furnish, and actors Liz Hurley and Sadie Frost, who was also in court. John arrived after a lunch break and sat in the gallery. Harry sat near the rear of the court and took notes as attorneys discussed preliminary matters.

The allegations date back to 1993 and continue beyond 2018, Sherborne said.

The publisher said the claims are too old to be brought now and should also be thrown out because they rely on information that the newspapers turned over confidentially for a 2012 probe into media law-breaking.

“It would be surprising indeed for any reasonably informed member of the public, let alone a figure in the public eye, to have been unaware of these matters,” attorney Adrian Beltrami said in a written statement.

Britain held a yearlong inquiry into press ethics after revelations in 2011 that the News of the World tabloid employees intercepted cellphone voicemail messages of celebrities, politicians and a teenage murder victim.

Owner Rupert Murdoch shut down the newspaper amid a criminal investigation and public uproar. Several journalists were convicted, and Murdoch’s company paid millions in damages to dozens of hacking victims.

In the inquiry’s 2012 report, Lord Justice Brian Leveson said that “outrageous” behavior by some in the press had “wreaked havoc with the lives of innocent people whose rights and liberties have been disdained.”

Judge Matthew Nicklin, who is hearing the current eavesdropping case, is also overseeing a separate libel lawsuit Harry brought against Associated Newspapers over an article about his quest for police protection when he and his family visit the U.K.

Harry, the younger son of King Charles III, and his wife, the former actor Meghan Markle, stepped down as working royals in 2020 and moved to the U.S., citing what they described as the unbearable intrusions and racist attitudes of the British media.

Harry has said he wants to make reforming the British media his life’s work. He fumes at the media throughout his memoir, “Spare,” which was published in January. He blamed an overly aggressive press for the 1997 death of his mother, Princess Diana, and also accused the media of hounding Meghan.

The couple has turned to British courts to combat what they see as media mistreatment. In December 2021, Meghan won an invasion-of-privacy case against Associated Newspapers over the Mail on Sunday’s publication of a letter she wrote to her estranged father.

Harry is also suing the publisher of another tabloid, the Mirror, in a separate hacking suit.