Prince Harry ordered to pay £9.5m towards publisher’s costs
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A High Court judge has now specified that Prince Harry and his fellow claimants must pay an initial £9.5 million towards the Daily Mail publisher's legal costs, after ruling their phone-hacking-style lawsuit had been pursued in a manner "unreasonable to a high degree." This figure firms up what had previously been described only as a substantial costs order, marking a significant financial blow in a case that had already collapsed for most of the claimants.
The case, launched in 2022 against Associated Newspapers, accused the publisher of unlawful information-gathering including phone tapping, burglary and impersonation, and was brought jointly by Harry alongside Sir Elton John, his husband David Furnish, actress Sadie Frost and Baroness Doreen Lawrence. Much of the claim was struck out at a preliminary stage in 2023 after a judge found key elements had been brought too late, and the £9.5 million payment ordered now represents an initial instalment towards Associated Newspapers' total legal bill, with further costs expected to be determined.
- Judge orders Harry and co-claimants to pay initial £9.5m in costs
- Court found their hacking case was "unreasonable to a high degree"
- Case against Daily Mail publisher had already largely collapsed in 2023
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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.
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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’”.