Lawyers for Prince Harry and six other personalities are seeking “substantial” damages for invasion of privacy from the publishing company of the “Daily Mail”, whose trial before the High Court in London ended on Tuesday.
These plaintiffs, which also include Elton John and actress Elizabeth Hurley, accuse Associated Newspapers Ltd (ANL), owner of the “Daily Mail” and the “Mail on Sunday”, of having obtained information about them illegally. The defense refers to “speculation”.
During this trial, which lasted more than two months, these personalities gave testimonies sometimes marked by emotion. They accuse the tabloids of having – in particular by using private detectives – intercepted voice messages, listened to telephone conversations, or even of having lied in order to obtain medical information to feed more than fifty articles published between 1993 and 2018.
“Substantial” damages
“The Court is requested to award substantial damages (…) to each of the plaintiffs for the improper use of private information concerning them,” their lawyers declared in their final written submissions. At the end of the final hearing on Tuesday, Judge Matthew Nicklin said the verdict, which will be delivered in writing, would take “some time”. This is the latest lawsuit brought against the tabloids by Harry, youngest son of King Charles III, who has been leading a legal crusade against the powerful British tabloid press for several years.
Harry, who lives in California with his wife Meghan and their two children, blames the paparazzi for the death of his mother Diana in 1997 in Paris. He also accused the press of harassing Meghan. At the court in January, on the verge of tears, he accused the tabloids of having made his wife’s life “absolutely hellish”. He also recounted how the newspapers’ repeated intrusions into his private life had made him “paranoid to the extreme.” Harry, 41, stepped back from the royal family in 2020 and moved to the United States.
“Ordinary, legitimate journalism, relying on prior reporting or confidential sources, is more likely than phone hacking, wiretapping or other forms of illegal information gathering,” he argued in court. Antony White, however, acknowledged the use of private investigators in some cases to obtain telephone numbers and addresses.
“Absolute rubbish”
The Daily Mail’s chief reporter, Sam Greenhill, called the wiretapping accusations “absolute rubbish” in court. Another journalist, Barbara Jones, assured that she herself had found information about Harry’s former girlfriend and “did everything by the book.”
Prince Harry and the other plaintiffs assure that their relatives would never have disclosed the private information that was published in the articles in question. While testifying in January, British actress Liz Hurley burst into tears while accusing the tabloids of having placed microphones on the windows of her house, denouncing “monstrous” actions.
Elton John also let his anger explode by speaking via video link in February, castigating the “odious” attacks on his private life on the part of publications, accused in particular of having accessed medical data surrounding the birth of his son Zachary.
