Britain’s Prince Harry and six other high-profile claimants have lost their long-running privacy lawsuit against the publisher of the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday in the London High Court.
According to international media reports, Prince Harry and the other claimants accused Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) of unlawfully obtaining their private information over nearly three decades, from 1990 to 2018.
The group of claimants included music legend Sir Elton John, David Furnish, Sir Simon Hughes, actress Elizabeth Hurley, Sadie Frost, and Baroness Doreen Lawrence.
They alleged that ANL used a range of illegal methods to gather personal information, including unauthorized access to phones and voicemail messages, covert surveillance, and attempts to obtain confidential medical and financial records.
Associated Newspapers strongly denied all allegations of unlawful information gathering throughout the legal proceedings.
The case was widely regarded as a landmark legal battle over the balance between press freedom and the right to privacy, drawing significant attention in the UK media.
Prince Harry has been one of the most vocal critics of Britain’s tabloid press. He has repeatedly argued that intrusive reporting has had a profound impact on his private life, family relationships, and mental health.
The ruling marks a setback for the Duke of Sussex, who has previously achieved legal victories against other British newspaper publishers. In 2023, he won 15 claims against Mirror Group Newspapers over unlawful information gathering, while the publisher of The Sun apologized last year and agreed to pay substantial compensation in a separate legal dispute.
The latest decision is another significant chapter in Prince Harry’s ongoing legal campaign against sections of the British tabloid media.