Prince Harry and celebrities attack the Daily Mail for invasion of privacy

Lawyers for Prince Harry and six other public figures are seeking “substantial” damages for invasion of privacy from the publisher of the “Daily Mail”, whose trial at the High Court of London concluded on Tuesday. These complainants, including Elton John and actress Elizabeth Hurley, accuse Associated Newspapers Ltd (ANL), owner of the “Daily Mail” and the “Mail on Sunday”, of obtaining information about them illegally. The defense, however, refers to “speculations.”

During this trial, which lasted more than two months, these public figures gave emotional testimonies. They accuse the tabloids of intercepting voicemails, listening to phone conversations, and lying to obtain medical information to fuel over fifty articles published between 1993 and 2018.

“It is requested that the Court grant substantial damages […] to each plaintiff for the abusive use of private information concerning them,” their lawyers stated in their final written submissions. Following the final hearing on Tuesday, Judge Matthew Nicklin stated that the verdict, which will be delivered in writing, will take “some time.” This is the latest legal action against tabloids by Harry, the younger son of King Charles III, who has been waging a legal battle against the powerful British scandal press for several years.

Harry, who lives in California with his wife Meghan and their two children, holds paparazzi responsible for the death of his mother Diana in 1997 in Paris. He has also accused the press of harassing Meghan. At the court hearing in January, on the verge of tears, he accused the tabloids of making his wife’s life “absolutely hellish.” He also described how the intrusion of newspapers into his private life made him “extremely paranoid.” Harry, 41, stepped back from the royal family in 2020 and moved to the United States.

“Ordinary and legitimate journalism, based on previous reports or confidential sources, is more likely than phone hacking, phone eavesdropping, or other forms of illegal information gathering,” he argued in court. Antony White, however, admitted to using private detectives in some cases to obtain phone numbers and addresses.

The chief reporter of the “Daily Mail”, Sam Greenhill, dismissed the phone eavesdropping allegations as “absolute nonsense” in court. Another journalist, Barbara Jones, claimed she had found information on Harry’s former girlfriend “by the book.”

Prince Harry and the other complainants insist that their loved ones would never have disclosed the private information published in the articles in question. Testifying in January, British actress Liz Hurley broke down in tears, accusing the tabloids of planting microphones on the windows of her house, describing their actions as “monstrous.”

Elton John also expressed his anger in a video statement in February, condemning the “heinous” violations of his privacy by the publications, accused of accessing medical data surrounding the birth of his son Zachary.

(Context: Legal battle over privacy rights. Fact Check: The trial involves accusations of illegal information gathering methods by the tabloids.)