Setback For Prince Harry: Why UK Court Dismissed His Case Against Daily Mail Publisher

Last Updated:July 08, 2026, 10:19 IST

Prince Harry was among seven high-profile claimants who accused Associated Newspapers Ltd, the publisher of the Daily Mail, of unlawfully obtaining private information.

Prince Harry has suffered another setback in his long-running battle with the British press after the High Court in London dismissed his privacy case against Associated Newspapers Ltd (ANL), the publisher of the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday and MailOnline.

The ruling brings to a close one of the last major lawsuits linked to allegations of unlawful newsgathering practices from Britain’s phone-hacking era.

The Duke of Sussex was among seven high-profile claimants who accused ANL of obtaining private information through illegal means over several years. The group alleged that journalists and private investigators working for the publisher had engaged in unlawful practices to produce stories about their personal lives.

However, the court ruled that the claimants had failed to prove their allegations, handing ANL what it described as an “overwhelming victory".

What Was Prince Harry’s Lawsuit About?

Prince Harry joined actors Elizabeth Hurley and Sadie Frost, singer Sir Elton John and his husband David Furnish, Baroness Doreen Lawrence, and former UK Liberal Democrat MP Sir Simon Hughes in bringing the case against Associated Newspapers.

They alleged that the publisher had engaged in the “clear, systematic and sustained use of unlawful information-gathering" while reporting on their private lives.

The claims covered dozens of newspaper articles published between 1997 and 2015, along with several incidents that allegedly never resulted in publication. According to the claimants, journalists relied on illegal methods rather than legitimate reporting to obtain personal information.

Among the allegations were claims of phone hacking, bugging homes and vehicles, tapping landlines, using private investigators, obtaining confidential records through deception, making corrupt payments to police officials and “blagging" confidential information.

ANL denied every allegation, maintaining throughout the trial that its stories were sourced lawfully through interviews, press officers, publicly available material and contacts within the claimants’ own social circles.

Why Did Prince Harry Decide To Sue?

Prince Harry has repeatedly argued that sections of the British media have crossed legal and ethical boundaries in reporting on his private life since he was a child.

The Daily Mail case formed part of his broader campaign to hold British newspaper groups accountable for what he says were years of unlawful intrusion.

During the trial earlier this year, Harry described the impact of media coverage on both himself and his family. He told the court that ANL had made the life of his wife, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, “an absolute misery".

One of the incidents central to Harry’s claim involved a 2013 Daily Mail article stating that he would spend New Year’s Eve apart from his then-girlfriend Cressida Bonas.

Harry argued that the information appeared so personal that he could not understand how journalists had obtained it. It was alleged during the case that a freelance journalist had been asked to obtain Ms Bonas’s travel details through deception.

In his witness statement, Harry described the episode as “creepy".

Why Did The Court Reject The Claims?

In a detailed 436-page judgment, Justice Nicklin concluded that the allegations were extremely serious and therefore required compelling evidence rather than suspicion.

The judge stressed that the court could not simply assume unlawful conduct because an article contained private information. Instead, each allegation had to be independently proven.

“I accept that he found the article intrusive and was genuinely concerned by how journalists appeared to know private information concerning his relationships," the judge said while referring to Harry’s complaint about the Cressida Bonas article. “But suspicion, even understandable suspicion, is not proof."

Nicklin accepted the evidence of journalists who appeared before the court and said they had provided lawful explanations for how the disputed stories had been sourced.

The Role Of A Key Witness

The claimants’ case was also weakened by the collapse of evidence from Gavin Burrows, a private investigator who had initially been presented as an important witness.

Before the trial, Burrows distanced himself from a witness statement attributed to him, saying it was a forgery and denying that he had carried out illegal work for the Daily Mail titles.

Nicklin said he could not reliably conclude that Burrows had made the statements attributed to him. He further observed that the investigator had been “comprehensively undermined" as a witness and that there was no independent evidence supporting his claims.

What Did Prince Harry And The Other Claimants Say?

Following the judgment, Prince Harry and Baroness Doreen Lawrence, whose son Stephen Lawrence was murdered in a racist attack in 1993, criticised the outcome in a joint statement.

“We came to Court seeking justice and accountability. But we have received neither," they said.

Calling the ruling “a complete and obvious whitewash, but sadly not altogether unexpected", they added: “When the court says there is not sufficient evidence of wrongdoing … then one does wonder how justice was ever going to be achieved."

How Did ANL Respond?

Associated Newspapers welcomed the ruling, describing it as a complete vindication of its journalism.

A spokesperson said the judgment represented “an overwhelming victory for the Daily Mail and its journalists".

“This is a magnificent vindication of the Daily Mail’s journalism," the publisher said, arguing that no credible evidence had been produced to support some of the most serious allegations made during the litigation.

“The reputations of our decent and hard-working journalists were terribly impugned, and today they have been exonerated. As the judgment clearly shows, every single article was legitimately sourced," the publisher added.

Paul Dacre, Associated Newspapers’ editor-in-chief and former Daily Mail editor, said the case should never have reached trial and described it as a “conspiracy" orchestrated by campaigners seeking to damage the newspaper.

He also said he had sympathy for Harry, describing him as “a confused and angry young man". He said his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, had “liked the Mail. We were her paper."

ANL has said it intends to recover its legal costs. According to the publisher, the litigation has consumed more than £50 million in legal expenses.

How Does This Compare With Harry’s Previous Legal Victories?

Although Prince Harry lost this case, he has secured victories against other newspaper publishers in recent years.

In 2023, he won significant parts of his claim against Mirror Group Newspapers after the court found that several stories about him had resulted from phone hacking or other unlawful information gathering.

More recently, News Group Newspapers, publisher of The Sun, agreed to pay substantial damages and issued what Harry described as a full apology while settling his long-running privacy claim over alleged unlawful intrusion into his life by private investigators working for the newspaper.

What Happens Next?

A further hearing is expected later this month to deal with remaining issues, including costs, but Tuesday’s judgment is widely seen as bringing one of the final major legal battles linked to Britain’s phone-hacking era to a close.

About the Author

Karishma Jain

Karishma Jain, Chief Sub Editor at News18.com, writes and edits opinion pieces on a variety of subjects, including Indian politics and policy, culture and the arts, technology and social change. Follo...Read More

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