Prince Harry Can Take Lawsuit Against The Sun To Court, Judge Rules

Jesse Whittock
·2 min read
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Prince Harry looks set for a courtroom battle with The Sun newspaper’s publisher in the UK.

The British royal’s damages claim over allegations of unlawful information gathering can go ahead to trial, a High Court judge has ruled. The case could be heard next year.

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However, the Duke of Sussex’s claims of phone hacking were dismissed and won’t form part of the lawsuit.

Prince Harry claims journalists and private investigators working for The Sun and the News of the World have used unlawful methods to obtain information about him. He made similar claims in his Netflix doc series Harry and Meghan.

The News of the World was shuttered in 2011 after it emerged an investigator working for the paper had intercepted voicemails of the missing schoolgirl Milly Dowler, giving her family false hope she was alive.

News Group Newspapers (NGN) denies the allegations.

NGN lawyers argued he has taken too long to bring the claim, as UK law dictates claimants have six years after breaches. However, a court previously heard there was a “secret agreement” in place between Buckingham Palace and NGN that stopped Harry from taking action before.

In March, he disclosed details of the alleged agreement, which the BBC reports meant any privacy actions should be delayed and settled out of court. A judge had rejected the claim.

According to the BBC, the case could include several famous faces such as Hugh Grant, who has been a key player in privacy wars against the UK’s tabloid newspapers. The trial is due to start in January 2024 but could push into 2025.

A NGN spokesperson said today’s ruling “substantially reduces the scope of his legal claim. The exact nature and scope of any trial of the remainder will be the subject of further hearings.”

Prince Harry is also taking legal action against the Mirror Group and the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday over alleged privacy breaches.

Last month, he gave testimony against the Mirror’s publishers in London.

The Sun has been in headlines for much of the past month, after it broke the story about a BBC presenter who was alleged to have paid a young person thousands of pounds for sexually explicit images.

Huw Edwards was later named as the presenter and there are now questions into The Sun’s newsgathering, with an influential government committee asking its editor for an explanation of how the story was verified after the young person refuted the reporting via a lawyer following publication.

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