Prince Harry and several other prominent British figures lost a privacy lawsuit against the publisher of the Daily Mail on Tuesday, marking a major setback in the Duke of Sussex’s long-running legal battle with the British tabloid media.London’s High Court dismissed the claim against Associated Newspapers, with Judge Matthew Nicklin ruling that the claimants had failed to prove that the information published about them had been obtained unlawfully.Harry, singer Elton John, actress and model Elizabeth Hurley and others allege that dozens of articles published in the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday from the 1990s to 2011 were based on information obtained through illegal methods, including phone hacking and the use of private investigators.However, the AP denied the accusations, calling them baseless. Following the ruling, the publisher called the ruling “an overwhelming victory for the Daily Mail and its journalists.”Judge Nicklin said in his ruling that the plaintiffs must prove that the information was obtained illegally and that mere suspicion is not enough. “The court rejected the argument that simply because the information was private and because the AP was unable to positively explain the source of the information, the article in question must have been illegally sourced,” the ruling said.Harry has long blamed sections of the British media for the death of his mother, Princess Diana, in a 1997 Paris car crash and has launched multiple legal actions against newspaper publishers in recent years. He has previously won a lawsuit against the publisher of the Daily Mirror and reached a settlement with Rupert Murdoch’s British newspaper conglomerate.During the trial in January, Harry became emotional as he described the impact of media coverage on his family. He told the court the Daily Mail had made his wife Meghan’s life “absolutely miserable” and had previously described bringing the case as his “public duty”.
