In a court hearing in London, Britain’s Prince Harry declared that his efforts to hold the press accountable will continue despite accepting substantial damages from Mirror Group Newspapers to settle his case. He also took aim at former editor Piers Morgan in another criticism.
Last December, the High Court in London found that Harry had been a victim of unlawful information gathering, including phone-hacking, by journalists at the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror, and Sunday People tabloids, with the knowledge of their editors. Judge Timothy Fancourt ruled that about half of the stories examined were the result of unlawful acts and awarded Harry 140,600 pounds in damages. Harry’s lawyer David Sherborne stated that Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) has now agreed to pay further substantial damages and his legal costs, totaling at least 400,000 pounds, to settle the outstanding claims.
In response, Prince Harry stated that the settlement vindicated his claims about the newspapers’ behavior. He emphasized the court’s “extremely damning judgement” which confirmed the widespread hacking and unlawful activities at MGN from 1996 to 2011. Around 100 claimants, including actors and sports stars, have sued MGN due to these violations.
Regarding the settlement, Harry’s lawyer also mentioned that MGN was likely to pay more than 2 million pounds to cover the claimants’ legal costs for their generic case, with an interim payment of 400,000 pounds specifically towards the prince’s individual costs. MGN, now owned by Reach, expressed its satisfaction with reaching an agreement with Harry and issued an apology where historical wrongdoing took place. “We apologize unreservedly, have taken full responsibility and paid compensation,” an MGN spokesperson said.
Following his withdrawal from royal duties in 2020, Prince Harry has been resolute in his mission to hold senior executives and editors of British tabloids accountable for what he believes are abuses of power, spreading lies, and unlawfully intruding into people’s lives. With the Mirror case marking his biggest victory so far in this endeavor, he has additional lawsuits pending against Associated Newspapers, publisher of the Daily Mail, and News Corp.’s British newspaper arm, News Group Newspapers.
Harry reiterated his commitment to seeing this mission through, calling for authorities to take action and criticizing former Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan. Morgan, a staunch critic of Harry and Meghan, had previously denied allegations of phone hacking while Harry accused him of knowing about the “widespread” unlawful behavior at the newspaper.
Despite this, Harry was not present at Friday’s hearing as he had made a brief trip to Britain to visit his father, King Charles, who had been diagnosed with a form of cancer. They were able to meet for under an hour before Charles left for his home in eastern England, where he is undergoing outpatient treatment. Harry, who has been estranged from his family amid his criticism of them and the monarchy, returned to California the following day.
(Reporting by Michael Holden and Sam Tobin; Editing by William James, Alison Williams and Angus MacSwan)
