Prince Harry has branded the High Court's sweeping dismissal of his case against the Daily Mail's publisher a "complete and obvious whitewash" — and he and his six co-claimants could now be staring down a legal bill of up to £50m.
In a 436-page judgment handed down on Tuesday, Mr Justice Nicklin dismissed every single claim brought by the Duke of Sussex and his fellow claimants against Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL), which publishes the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday and MailOnline. The ruling stated plainly that the group had "failed to prove their pleaded allegations of unlawful information gathering" — an emphatic vindication for the publisher after an 11-week High Court trial earlier this year.
The Claims That Fell Apart
Harry brought the case alongside six other prominent figures: campaigner Baroness Doreen Lawrence, singer Sir Elton John and his husband David Furnish, actors Liz Hurley and Sadie Frost, and former Liberal Democrat minister Sir Simon Hughes. Together, they accused ANL of a "clear, systematic and sustained use of unlawful information-gathering" spanning several years — including phone hacking, landline tapping, hiring private investigators to plant listening devices in cars, and obtaining private records such as medical files through deception, a practice known as "blagging".
The group presented the court with 55 articles published between 1997 and 2015, along with three further incidents that did not result in published stories. ANL robustly denied every allegation throughout the mammoth 45-day trial, arguing that stories had been sourced legitimately — from press officers, previous articles or, as their legal team colourfully put it, the "leaky" social circles of celebrities.
Justice Nicklin agreed that the court could not simply infer a story had been obtained unlawfully where a legitimate, realistic source remained plausible. He also dismissed suggestions that senior figures at the Mail, including its former editor Paul Dacre, had misled the 2011-12 Leveson inquiry into press ethics.
'Confused and Angry Young Man'
Giving evidence during the trial, Harry had become visibly emotional, telling the court that ANL had made his wife Meghan Markle's life "an absolute misery" and describing intrusions into the private life of his former girlfriend Chelsy Davy by journalists at the group.
On Tuesday afternoon, however, just moments after the judgment was released, the Duke appeared composed and even light-hearted at a separate Invictus Games conference at Chatham House in London, joking that the room was one of the "few" in the UK with air conditioning — "so I can understand why every seat is full."
In a joint statement released with Baroness Lawrence after the ruling, Harry made his feelings about the outcome crystal clear.
"When the court says there is not sufficient evidence of wrongdoing… then one does wonder how justice was ever going to be achieved."
Dacre, meanwhile, responded with a video statement in which he described the case as a "conspiracy" orchestrated by press regulation campaigners intent on destroying the paper. He said he had sympathy for Harry, describing him as a "confused and angry young man," and added that Harry's mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, had "liked the Mail. We were her paper."
The Bill Is Coming
ANL wasted no time in declaring victory, with a spokesperson calling the result "a magnificent vindication of the Daily Mail's journalism" and "an overwhelming victory for a free press generally." The publisher said the reputations of its journalists had been "terribly impugned" throughout the case and that they had now been fully exonerated.
The financial consequences for the claimants could be severe. ANL intends to pursue recovery of its costs, and legal estimates suggest the combined bill facing Harry and his co-claimants could reach as high as £50m.
The ruling is also widely seen as a likely full stop on new phone-hacking era litigation, with legal observers noting the judgment's emphatic, comprehensive tone leaves little room for a fresh wave of similar claims against the publisher.
