Prince Harry, who concluded a financial agreement on Wednesday with the owner of the powerful tabloid The Sun, maintains stormy relations with the press against whom he has launched several legal battles.
• Also read: Financial agreement between Prince Harry and the owner of the tabloid “The Sun”
The youngest son of King Charles III withdrew from the royal family in 2020 to settle in California. He judges the tabloids responsible for the death of his mother Diana, chased by paparazzi in Paris in 1997, and also accused them of harassment towards his wife Meghan.
Here are the main cases between Harry and the press.
Harry’s lawsuit against NGN
Harry’s trial against News Group Newspapers (NGN), part of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire, was due to open in London on Tuesday. It ended on Wednesday with a financial agreement, the amount of which was not disclosed.
Harry accused the group’s publications – namely The Sun and the now defunct News of the World – of having resorted, in particular through private detectives, to illegal processes to collect information intended to feed articles concerning him. more than a decade ago.
On Wednesday, at the High Court in London, the prince’s lawyer announced that the parties had reached an agreement, ending a trial that was expected to last weeks.
In the aftermath, the group apologized to Harry for “phone hacking, surveillance and misuse of private information by journalists and private investigators” acting for News of the World, which closed in 2011 , and will pay him “substantial reparations”, again according to the prince’s lawyer.
A victory against Daily Mirror
Prince Harry won a major victory in December 2023 with the conviction of the publisher of the British tabloid Daily Mirror for his articles resulting from the hacking of telephone messages.
A victory which resulted in the payment of 140,600 pounds sterling (163,000 euros) in damages.
Prince Harry and other personalities accused the publisher of the Daily Mirror of having used illicit processes to gather information between 1995 and 2001.
In its judgment, the High Court recognized that he had been the victim of phone hacking “to a modest extent”. However, she retained “the distress” that Harry experienced “due to the illegal activity directed against him and his loved ones”.
Harry came to testify in court for two days, an extremely rare occurrence for a member of the royal family. He then claimed that “phone hacking was practiced on an industrial scale by at least three newspapers at the time.”
-After the judgment, the Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) group renewed its “unreserved” apology.
Legal battle against ANL
Prince Harry – and other celebrities, including Elton John – are engaged in a legal battle over privacy violations against Associated Newspaper (ANL), the publisher of the powerful and popular Daily Mail.
All accuse Associated Newspapers (ANL) of using methods such as hiring private investigators, wiretapping and identity theft to obtain medical information for writing articles.
Most of the facts denounced date back to the period 1993-2011, some dating from 2018.
ANL completely denies these accusations.
According to the British press, the trial could be held at the beginning of 2026.
Daily Mail lawsuit
The prince was suing ANL in another case: he accused the publisher of the Daily Mail of defamation after an article on another legal battle he is waging, this time against the British government over his police protection when he visits the United Kingdom.
According to Harry’s defense, the February 2022 article falsely accused the Duke of Sussex of “lying” and “trying to keep secret” his appeal against the government to try to obtain police protection in the country.
Harry and his wife Meghan Markle, who stepped down from the royal family in 2023, are no longer entitled to police protection at the expense of the British taxpayer.
Harry had lost a first round in this affair. The court ordered him to pay 48,000 pounds sterling (56,000 euros) by December 29, 2023 to the publishing company of the Mail on Sunday, whose defense he sought to defeat.
The powerful tabloid announced, in January 2024, that Prince Harry had withdrawn his complaint.
