Prince Harry will testify against the Daily Mail publisher in a high-profile trial alleging illegal information gathering, marking his final active UK media lawsuit.
LONDON: Prince Harry is set to testify on Wednesday in a London court as the first witness in a joint claim against two UK tabloid newspapers.
He and six other high-profile figures allege Associated Newspapers Ltd (ANL) unlawfully gathered private information.
The claimants, including Elton John and actors Liz Hurley and Sadie Frost, accuse the publisher of illegal activities spanning from at least 1993 to 2018.
They allege ANL intercepted voicemails, listened to phone calls, and deceptively obtained private data.
The group also claims the publisher paid private investigators implicated in other hacking lawsuits for unlawful information.
ANL has consistently denied all allegations, calling them “lurid” and “preposterous”.
This trial is Prince Harry’s last active legal case in his long-running campaign against the British media.
He previously made history in 2023 by becoming the first senior royal in over a century to testify in court.
That case resulted in a successful hacking claim against Mirror Group Newspapers.
Last year, Rupert Murdoch’s UK tabloid publisher also settled with him, paying “substantial damages” for privacy breaches.
In written testimony unveiled on Monday, Harry said ANL’s alleged conduct left him “paranoid beyond belief”.
Elton John stated his family felt “violated” by the actions.
David Sherborne, the claimants’ lawyer, told the court he will show “clear and systematic use of unlawful gathering of information” at ANL.
He argued the publisher “knew they had skeletons in their closet” and that years of denials were false.
ANL’s lawyer, Antony White, countered that the trial will provide a legitimate explanation for the sourcing of over 50 articles.
He described the allegations about payments to investigators as “clutching at straws in the wind”.
All seven claimants in the case are scheduled to give evidence during the nine-week trial.
The other claimants are campaigner Doreen Lawrence and former politician Simon Hughes.
Prince Harry has long criticised media intrusion, blaming paparazzi for his mother Princess Diana’s death in 1997.
He attended the High Court on Monday and during parts of Tuesday’s proceedings ahead of his testimony.
