As the British royal steps up his legal battles against the tabloid press, Prince Harry’s lawyer said on Friday that he will try to win his libel claim against publisher Associated Newspapers without going to trial.
Last year, Harry, King Charles’ younger son, sued Associated Newspapers over an article in its Mail on Sunday newspaper that claimed he tried to keep details of his separate legal battle with the British government about his security arrangements hidden.
In July, the High Court in London ruled that the Mail report was defamatory, paving the way for Harry to pursue the case against one of Britain’s largest media publishers.
According to the article, Harry, 38, tried to keep details of his legal battle to reinstate his police protection – which was withdrawn after he stepped down from royal duties in 2020 – secret, and his aides then tried to spin it in a positive light.
His lawyers confirmed to Reuters that they would ask Judge Matthew Nicklin for a summary judgment – a ruling in his favor without the need for a trial – at a hearing on Friday.
Meghan Markle, Harry’s American wife, won a summary judgment in her privacy case against the Mail on Sunday two years ago for printing parts of a handwritten letter she had sent to her estranged father, Thomas Markle.
Since their 2018 marriage, the couple has been embroiled in numerous court cases against tabloid papers, accusing them of racism, hounding them, and spreading lies.
One of the reasons they resigned from royal duties and relocated to California to start new lives and careers was media intrusion.
Harry focused heavily on the press in his memoir “Spare” and the couple’s six-part Netflix documentary series, accusing other royals of being complicit in newspaper stories.
Buckingham Palace and other royals have not responded to those remarks.
Harry, officially known as the Duke of Sussex, also told one TV interview in January that he hoped his legal action would help reform the media, adding that his father had described that as “probably a suicide mission”.
A hearing is scheduled for later this month in another case he has brought against Associated Newspapers with singer Elton John and others over allegations of phone tapping and other privacy violations.
A phone-hacking lawsuit against the Daily Mirror newspaper will go to trial in May, and he is also suing News Group Newspapers, the publisher of the now-defunct News of the World and The Sun, for alleged phone-hacking.
