Prince Harry is involved in so many lawsuits against the British tabloids, even I get confused. This update is about Harry’s lawsuit against the Sun, which is part of News Group Newspapers, Rupert Murdoch’s media empire in the UK. Harry is alleging the same thing across the board, which is that all of these media outlets hacked his phones, spied on him, gathered information about him illegally, stalked and harassed his girlfriends and friends, blagged, and on and on. Harry’s case against the Sun was of particular interest because Harry revealed that the Sun had secretly paid Prince William a seven-figure settlement in 2020, and that QEII had some kind of arrangement with the tabloids to not pursue legal action circa 2010-12. Well, here’s the update:

The Duke of Sussex’s claim over allegations of unlawful information gathering against the publisher of the Sun will go ahead to a trial, after a high court ruling. Harry, 38, alleges he was targeted by journalists and private investigators working for News Group Newspapers (NGN), publisher of the Sun and the now-defunct News Of The World, and has launched a claim for damages.

At a hearing in April, NGN asked Mr Justice Fancourt to throw out the duke’s case, arguing it was brought too late because he should have known sooner he had a potential claim. In a ruling on Thursday, the judge concluded that Harry could not bring his claim relating to phone hacking, but that his claim over other allegations – including use of private investigators – should go ahead to a trial, which is due to take place in January next year.

The judge also refused to allow the duke to rely on an alleged “secret agreement” between the royal family and senior executives working for media mogul Rupert Murdoch as part of his claim.

In his written ruling, the judge concluded: “I am satisfied that there is no reasonable prospect of the duke proving at trial that he did not know and could not with reasonable diligence have discovered facts that would show that he had a worthwhile claim for voicemail interception in relation to each of the News Of The World and the Sun. He already knew that in relation to the News Of The World, and he could easily have found out by making basic inquiries that he was likely to have a similar claim in relation to articles published by the Sun.”

Harry’s lawyers previously argued that NGN’s challenge to his claim was an attempt to go behind the alleged “secret agreement”, between the royal family as an institution and the publisher, which the duke was told of in 2012. Fancourt said in his ruling that the duke had not “provided any evidence from those in the palace who would have been aware of a secret agreement if there was one”.

At a hearing in London earlier this month, lawyers for the duke said there was evidence to support the existence of the agreement, including emails between senior executives at the Rupert Murdoch-owned parent companies of NGN and palace staff in 2017 and 2018. David Sherborne, for Harry, also said in written arguments the fact the Prince of Wales settled a claim against NGN “for a very large sum of money” in 2020 also “supports the contention that there was a secret agreement in place”.

[From The Guardian]

While I’m glad Harry’s case will go to trial – and this one is a solo venture, he’s not part of a case with multiple plaintiffs on this one – it does feel like the judge is kneecapping Harry’s lawsuit significantly. Harry’s argument was always: back then, in 2010-12, I didn’t ask questions, I did as I was told, and I was told that the palace had an agreement with NGN to avoid litigation and quietly settle. The judge is saying that Harry can’t make that argument because he doesn’t have evidence of a secret palace agreement. Like… the fact that William took a secret settlement in 2020 is the evidence. The fact that no royal before Harry openly sued the Sun for phone-hacking and criminal activities is the evidence of the secret agreement.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.