LONDON, July 7, (v7n) – Prince Harry and Sir Elton John have lost their High Court case against the publisher of the Daily Mail over allegations of unlawful information gathering, with a judge dismissing all claims following an 11-week trial.
In a written judgment published Tuesday, Judge Matthew Nicklin ruled that the "claimants failed to prove their pleaded allegations... the claims are therefore dismissed."
Associated Newspapers, the publisher, welcomed the decision as an "overwhelming victory" and a "magnificent vindication of the Daily Mail's journalism." The company said the court had dismissed "every single one of the 97 allegations" and had "accepted the honesty of our journalists' evidence on how they sourced their stories."
The publisher described allegations of bugging, call interception, and illicit bank account access as "lurid" and "preposterous" with no "credible evidence" presented. "The reputations of our decent and hard-working journalists were terribly impugned, and today they have been exonerated," it added.
The case, which also involved actor Elizabeth Hurley and other high-profile figures, centered on articles dating from 1993 to 2018. Prince Harry gave emotional testimony during the proceedings, with his lawyers seeking "substantial" damages. The case was the third and final legal battle brought by the Duke of Sussex against British tabloids, further straining his relations with the royal family.
The ruling came as Prince Harry, 41, arrived in Britain on Monday for a five-day visit to mark the one-year countdown to the Invictus Games—his first trip back to the UK in four years. However, his wife Meghan and children Archie and Lilibet did not accompany him after the family was refused publicly funded police protection, a source told AFP.
Arrangements for the rest of the trip remained unclear, with contradictory statements adding to the prince's headaches. Buckingham Palace contradicted Harry's team by saying he would not be staying at the palace after missing a deadline to accept the accommodation offer. Harry's spokesman called it "disappointing" that the offer from his father, King Charles III, had been "withdrawn at the last moment."
It was unclear whether Harry would meet the King, who is being treated for cancer. The two are last understood to have met in September 2025. Harry and Meghan left Britain for North America in 2020 amid a bitter family feud, which deepened after Harry published his memoir "Spare." The prince has since expressed a desire to reconcile with his father.
Harry has long blamed the media for the death of his mother, Princess Diana, who was killed in a Paris car crash in 1997 while fleeing paparazzi. He has also fought legal battles over police protection in Britain, saying last year he felt unable to bring his family to the UK after losing a court case to restore his security during visits.
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