Prince Harry ordered to pay £9.5m towards publisher’s costs
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A High Court judge has confirmed that Prince Harry and his fellow claimants must pay an initial £9.5 million towards Associated Newspapers' legal costs, ruling that their phone-hacking-style lawsuit was pursued in a manner "unreasonable to a high degree." The ruling firms up a costs order previously described only in general terms, imposing a heavy financial penalty on a case that had already largely collapsed before reaching trial, with the total bill potentially rising as high as £34.5 million once further costs are assessed.
The lawsuit, filed in 2022 against the Daily Mail's publisher, alleged unlawful information-gathering including phone tapping, burglary and impersonation, and was brought jointly by Harry, Sir Elton John, his husband David Furnish, actress Sadie Frost and Baroness Doreen Lawrence. Much of the claim was struck out in 2023 after a judge found key elements had been brought too late, and the £9.5 million now specified represents an interim payment towards Associated Newspapers' costs, with the case's collapse leaving the claimants facing a substantial financial reckoning.
- Harry and co-claimants must pay £9.5m towards Mail publisher's legal costs
- Judge ruled the hacking lawsuit was pursued "unreasonably" before collapsing
- Total costs bill could eventually reach up to £34.5 million
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Prince Harry has been in a long-running legal dispute with the publisher of the Daily Mail, Associated Newspapers, over how it gathered information for its stories. He brought the case in 2022 together with a group of other public figures, arguing the company had used unlawful methods such as phone tapping, burglary and impersonation.
The publisher has always denied wrongdoing, and much of the claim was thrown out by a judge in 2023, who found that key parts had been brought too late under the rules on time limits for such lawsuits. This left the case significantly weakened, with only a smaller portion able to continue.
Because Harry and the other claimants did not succeed, court rules mean they can be made to cover a share of the publisher's legal expenses. The size of that bill matters because it shows the financial risk of bringing high-profile legal challenges against newspapers, and because Harry has been one of the most prominent and vocal critics of the British press in recent years.
More coverage
- Variety — Prince Harry, Elton John and More Ordered to Pay Initial $13 Million to Daily Mail Publisher After Losing Privacy Case
- BBC Entertainment — Prince Harry and six others ordered to pay initial £9.5m to Daily Mail publisher
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Originally published by Daily Mail as “Prince Harry and fellow claimants must pay millions to Daily Mail after judge rules their doomed hacking case was ‘unreasonable to a high degree’”.