Prince Harry has not been winning in the legal department lately. He lost his latest bid to have evidence thrown out in his court case.
He is in a court battle in the United Kingdom with the Mail’s publisher, Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL), over an article about his fight for security since his move to North America with his wife, Meghan Markle.
He is suing over defamatory statements made in an article in the Mail.
The Mail alleged that Prince Harry was trying to hide his efforts to attain security after he stepped down as a working royal.
Yahoo reports that the headline read, “How Prince Harry tried to keep his legal fight with the government over bodyguards a secret …”
After the story broke, Harry’s public relations crew started to spin his story. Harry and Meghan’s original statement in January 2020 stated they had “chosen” to leave the United Kingdom.
After this story, Harry changed the wording to “forced” and publicly said he feared for his family’s safety.
The High Court’s ruling and what it means for Harry
Harry’s lawyer, Shaheed Fatima, asked the High Court to rule that ANL could not use the legal defense of ‘honest opinion’ and wanted a judge to lead without it going to trial.
The court heard testimony from both sides. Harry was not present in court, but his lawyer read a statement on his behalf. In that statement, Harry
As previously reported by Monsters and Critics, Harry’s defense team claims the article was “an attack on his honesty and integrity.”
But, Sir Matthew James Nicklin FRSA, a British High Court judge, struck down the request and ruled that the publishers had a “real prospect” of showing what Harry wrote was, in fact, misleading.
The judge ordered Harry to pay £48,447 (US$60,850) in costs to ANL by December 29, 2023, in an Approved Judgment. This decision by the judge that Harry has to pay the legal fees was set down on Monday, December 11, 2023.
Harry is part of another, more significant, lawsuit involving Elton John
ABC News reports that Harry and Sir Elton John “alleged they were the ‘victims of abhorrent criminal activity.'” They have filed a lawsuit against the same newspaper publisher, ANL. ANL is the publisher Harry was just ordered to pay legal fees to before the end of this year.
Harry, Elton John, David Furnish, Elizabeth Hurley, Sadie Frost, and Baroness Doreen Lawrence of Clarendon OBE are all plaintiffs in the legal action.
The lawsuit alleges that ANL hired people to plant surveillance devices in private cars and hired private investigators to record them.
According to Reuters, they also allege that they hired people to impersonate medical personnel to obtain personal information.