Prince Harry and different high-profile British figures’ privateness lawsuits in opposition to the Every day Mail newspaper’s writer will go to trial in early 2026, London’s Excessive Court docket heard on Tuesday, with the events’ authorized prices set to exceed 38 million kilos ($47.8 million).
Harry, the youthful son of King Charles, is one in all seven claimants suing Related Newspapers over allegations of voicemail interception – generally referred to as phone-hacking – and different severe privateness breaches relationship again 30 years.
Related, which additionally publishes the Mail on Sunday, has at all times denied involvement in illegal practices. Its attorneys stated in filings for a preliminary listening to on Tuesday that the claimants’ allegations have been “firmly denied.”
The writer’s try and throw out the lawsuits was rejected final 12 months, paving the way in which for a trial which the claimants and Related say ought to start in early 2026.
Attorneys representing the claimants, who additionally embody singer Elton John and actors Elizabeth Hurley and Sadie Frost, count on to spend round 18.4 million kilos as much as and together with the trial, with Related incurring practically 20 million kilos, in line with court docket filings made public on Tuesday.
Harry and the opposite claimants’ lawsuits, which have been filed in 2022, marked the primary time Related had been dragged into the phone-hacking scandal, which emerged greater than a decade in the past and prompted a public inquiry into the ethics of the press and a number of other prison trials.
It additionally sparked long-running litigation in opposition to Rupert Murdoch’s British newspaper arm, Information Group Newspapers, and the writer of the Every day Mirror, Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN).
Harry’s case in opposition to Related is one in all a number of he has introduced in opposition to British media organizations as a part of his “mission” to purge executives and editors whom he accuses of spreading lies and intruding into folks’s lives.
The prince accepted substantial damages from MGN to settle the rest of his phone-hacking lawsuit, having been awarded 140,600 kilos (round $178,000) after the Excessive Court docket ruled he had been focused by journalists.
Harry’s case in opposition to Information Group Newspapers is because of go to trial in January.
Photograph: AP Photograph/Kirsty Wigglesworth, File
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