Prince Harry can continue with his privacy lawsuit against Daily Mail publisher Associated Newspapers, a U.K. judge ruled on Friday.
As the BBC reports, the case also involves six other celebrities, including Sir Elton John, David Furnish, Elizabeth Hurley, Sadie Frost, Sir Simon Hughes and Baroness Doreen Lawrence, who are all claiming that Associated Newspapers has partaken in “gross breaches of privacy” and unlawful information gathering. According to the lawsuit filed by Harry and his fellow claimants, this includes allegations of listening into and recording phone calls, bugging cars and illicitly obtaining private financial and medical records.
Associated Newspapers has consistently denied the allegations and sought to have the case dismissed because some of the claims happened years ago, falling outside the limitation period. However, now that a judge has ruled the suit can continue, it looks to become the latest high-profile trial in the U.K. dealing with issues of privacy when it comes to tabloid newspapers.
“We are delighted with today’s decision which allows our claims over serious criminal activity and gross breaches of privacy by the Mail titles to proceed to trial,” Harry’s lawyers told Variety in a statement. “The High Court has dismissed ‘without difficulty’ the attempt by Associated Newspapers to throw these cases out. Indeed, the Judge found that each of our claims had a real prospect of showing there was concealment of unlawful acts by the Mail titles and that this could not have been discovered until recently. Our claims can now proceed to trial.”
Back in March, Prince Harry made a surprise appearance at London’s High Court in support of the suit, telling the judge in a written submission that he suffered from “suspicion and paranoia… caused by Associated’s publication of the unlawful articles – friends were lost or cut off as a result and everyone became a ‘suspect’, since he was misled by the way that the articles were written into believing that those close to him were the source of this information being provided to Associated’s newspapers,” as the Evening Standard reported.
In June, the prince became the first senior royal to testify in 130 years when he took the witness box during his case against British tabloid The Daily Mirror. That case remains ongoing, as do several others against various U.K. publishers. Now that his latest case has been given the green light, it is possible that Harry could find himself in court once again to testify.
Prince Harry currently lives in Montecito, Calif. with his wife Meghan Markle and their two children. In January 2020, the couple stepped down from their royal duties and moved to California to pursue production and nonprofit work under their Archewell banner.
