In February, the Daily Mail/Mail on Sunday had a few “exclusives” about Prince Harry’s Judicial Review into his security situation. Again, Harry has sought a Judicial Review from the High Court about whether he and his Sussex family should be able to receive royal protection when they’re in the UK, and Harry wants to be able to reimburse the Met for the protection. The spin coming out of the Met and the Windsor clan is “how dare Harry argue that he needs security” and “how dare he think he can pay for the security he doesn’t need.” Instead of actually arguing the merits of Harry’s Judicial Review, the Mail chose to repeatedly smear him and publish every nasty leak they were getting from Clarence House, Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace. So Harry sued the Mail over their exclusives, specifically one gross Mail on Sunday story which completely misrepresented the security fight. Now Newsweek has more about his lawsuit:
Prince Harry accused a U.K. tabloid of causing “upset and distress and injury to his feelings” with an exclusive story about his police security, Newsweek can reveal. The Duke of Sussex’s lawyers said in a new libel lawsuit that the Mail on Sunday was responsible for “distortion and misrepresentation of the facts”.
The case relates to whether Prince Harry lied about having always been willing to pay for his police protection—a suggestion he says is defamatory, a court filing shows. The California-based royal is suing through the High Court, in London, over the newspaper’s coverage of a lawsuit he filed against the U.K. government. A court filing, seen by Newsweek, read: “[Prince Harry] has been upset (but sadly unsurprised) by [the Mail’s] distortion and misrepresentation of the facts in breach of the most basic journalistic standards and ethics.”
The newspaper ran an exclusive story on February 20 suggesting Harry had used his PR machine to misrepresent the nature of a lawsuit against the U.K. Home Office, according to the court filing. The prince is suing the British government over its decision to remove his police protection on trips to Britain.
The Mail on Sunday broke the story in January, prompting the duke’s legal representative to issue a statement saying he had offered to pay for the security detail himself in a meeting with the royals in 2020. A Home Office court filing later said Harry had not made the offer during early correspondence for the judicial review, which he applied for in September 2021. However, it made no mention one way or the other of any offer at the meeting with the royals in 2020.
The Mail on Sunday then ran a story headlined: “REVEALED: How Harry tried to keep his legal fight over bodyguards secret….then minutes after MoS broke story his PR machine tried to put positive spin on the dispute.” Quoted in the court filing, the article read: “The revelations are a crushing rebuttal to Harry’s initial public statement that implied he had always been willing to foot the bill.”
The duke’s court filing read: “The Home Office’s [filing] clearly only claims that [Prince Harry] did not advance his offer to pay to RAVEC [the Royal and VIP Executive Committee] at the time of [Prince Harry’s] visit to Great Britain in June 2021 or in the pre-action correspondence that followed. It does not refer to or dispute in any way what was stated in [Prince Harry’s] public statement and his reference to the fact that he ‘first offered to pay personally for UK police protection for him and his family in January 2020 at Sandringham. That offer was dismissed. He remains willing to cover the cost of security, as not to impose on the British taxpayer’.”
I’ll try to explain, because I sort of follow it. First, Harry’s argument is that at the so-called Sandringham Summit in early 2020, he wanted to keep his royal protection no matter where he went, and he offered to pay for that protection too. That offer was rejected, and as we know, Charles had the Sussexes’ security withdrawn in March/April of that year. The Mail claimed that Harry never “offered” to reimburse the Met for protection later on, when he came for his grandfather’s funeral in 2021. Which is false. The Mail also claimed that Harry was trying to keep all of this a secret and only made a statement about it for PR… when obviously, the palace leaked Harry’s Judicial Review news in the wake of Prince Andrew’s mess, and Harry made a statement to counteract their distraction attempt.
Newsweek’s Jack Royston also reports that Harry’s lawsuit notes that MoS’s negative, libelous coverage led to a “feeding frenzy of hostile comments” as well as “upset and distress and injury to his feelings.” He is seeking damages, including aggravated damages, and if he wins he wants the newspaper to print a summary of the judgment.
Photos courtesy of Instar, WENN.
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- YOKOHAMA, JAPAN – NOVEMBER 02: Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex arrives at the stadium prior to the Rugby World Cup 2019 Final between England and South Africa at International Stadium Yokohama on November 02, 2019 in Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan. Where: Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan When: 02 Nov 2019 Credit: WENN/Avalon **WENN/Avalon**
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- Britain’s Prince Harry visits the Silverstone circuit in Towcester, Britain, March 6, 2020. Where: TOWCESTER, United Kingdom When: 06 Mar 2020 Credit: WENN/Avalon **WENN/Avalon**
I hope he wins and it doesn’t take years like his other case. These brutal attacks by the press based on lies and hearsay that are initiated & sanctioned by the palaces have gone to far. The rags are acting as Palace mercenaries for hire. I am so glad that PH broke his pact with the devil and took his family away from there.
The fact that it even come this far is disgusting. As a UK citizen he should be able to come and go to his country as he pleases.
But he is able to come and go as pleases.
WREN: Not with the security he wants to pay for!
In my country the national press organization has a committee who handles complaints about breach of ethics in the press. Anyone can complain about articles or TV/radio programs. If the committee finds they have breached the journalism rules of ethics, the paper or tv/radio-station have to make a public statement about it. Is there no such thing in Britain?
Why does the daily mail even still exists? This paper should have been done away with long time ago
I’m sure that’s a rhetorical question, but a lot of people, as 2016 illustrated on both sides of the pond, prefer being sequestered in their own echo chambers.
Not only exists, but is owned and run by an aristocrat; Viscount Rothermere. Which begs the question: Why does he have such a big axe to grind? Mind you, he’s only the 4th so I suppose he is the aristrocratic version of “New Money”. Maybe there’s some kind of snobbery related retaliation involved.
Ugh I hate all this so much.
They just lie on H&M and then continue to benefit from publicity and clicks when they get sued.
It’s a win-win for places like the Mail and that is so frustrating.
Lol, no.
There is no denying though that the papers make a lot of money and influence a lot of opinions while waiting to lose in court. They can be stopped from profiting, but what about the damage to Harry’s rep? A single editorial doesn’t negate all the damage done.
To be clear I’m not opposed to H&M suing. They are holding these publications accountable at the very least in the court of law, and I celebrate them in that endeavor.
It just is frustrating to me that the liars continue to profit when they are being sued. It’s so gross to me.
They’re using him to cover for the disaster tour. They ‘re desperate pulling out all the tricks.
To be honest this was from a few days ago and no other publication had touched it besides Newsweek as far as I can see..maybe they will later.. I think this is just normal court proceedings.
Also jack will write on ANYTHING Sussex so I think this is him also needing stories to meet deadlines/quotas/money
I don’t like jack or Newsweek but they seem to be the only ones reporting on this. Hmm
Anyways I hope this goes far and we find out who was leaking specifically from the palace. I have a suspicion Harry knows though.
I think he’ll win settlement because I doubt the government or RF want the leaker outed.
Royston is a bit problematic — if H&M are facing headwinds, he adds his breath. Even this article has “both sides” covered. Still, in spite of the tone re: Harry’s hurt feelings, how could these unrelenting, mendacious “articles” NOT create mental distress?! I hope Harry wipes the floor with Rothermere. And Murdoch.
Wow, a lot of Cambridge, Charles, Queen stans are scurrying about these comments leaving poop droppings of lies in their wake.
I’m betting this reply was in response to a troll’s comment that was deleted.
Unless these are just carefully selected especially good photos, mygawd Harry is a total smokeshow. I’m a redhead groupie anyway, but dayum.
I suspect Harry has his offer to pay for security in writing.
Surely somewhere in the world there must be an elite security company that Harry could hire? One that can provide him and his family with the same level ( or even better) security than the Metropolitan police?
I think the issue is that that security team won’t have access to the information that the British government has for things like threats etc.
@Nancy: The issue was never about his security team, he has that already. It’s the fact that his team is not allowed to carry guns in the UK and has no access to intelligence. Only the Met Police can provide those things and without them he’s a sitting duck if he visits the UK.
I hope this lawsuit really uncovers some things. FAFO
The fact that a Prince can not get security in his home country for himself and his family is nothing but a way to punish him for marrying a biracial woman. If that isn’t horrific enough the BRF is out doing vacation tours and there security is being funded by Belize, Jamaica and The Bahamas tell me how that makes sense? Why are they not funding their own security? Why is it such a burden for PH to cover the costs for Royal security when he is in that country but they willingly continue to fund PA security? I used to like England now everything about that island reeks.
Harry stays bringing the smoke and I am LIVING.
He said “I am not these other Windsors, I am not the one”
Long live the Ginger Avenger.
When are these poor excuse of newspapers gonna do their job and actually stop fabricating lies?