Prince Harry Prepares for January Trial in Illegal Information Gathering Lawsuit Against UK Tabloid
The Duke of Sussex’s lawyer, David Sherborne, confirmed the case is moving forward.
Prince Harry is reportedly preparing to make his case in court.
On Friday, Nov. 16, the Duke of Sussex's attorney, David Sherborne, confirmed that the royal's legal case against New Group Newspapers (NGN), the publisher of the U.K. tabloid The Sun, will continue and is expected to go to trial in January 2025, People reports.
NGN is owned by Rupert Murdoch, the controversial media mogul who also founded Fox News.
Prince Harry has accused the publisher of phone hacking and carrying out other "privacy violations" between 1996 and 2011 that amount to illegal information gathering. The Duke of Sussex alleges both The Sun and the now-defunct publication News of the World were targeting him by using those alleged practices.
NGN has denied the allegations or any wrongdoing.
According to People, the High Court ruled that Prince Harry's legal team could access "additional emails between senior NGN staff and royal household members," which were argued to be "crucial" to the Duke of Sussex's ongoing case.
Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex attends a Sentebale reception and panel discussion at The Saxon Hotel in Johannesburg, South Africa.
People reports that the judge, Justice Fancourt, ruled there was “sufficient justification” for the emails in question to be disclosed, saying that “there is a credible case for saying a full picture is necessary in the interest of justice.”
Prince Harry has been involved in a number of high-profile and contentious legal fights over his privacy and security for some time. In 2022, the Duke of Sussex won a defamation lawsuit against The Mail on Sunday. The legal win—one of the royal's firsts—came after he filed a lawsuit against Associated Newspapers, which publishes the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday, that same year.
Prince Harry sued the publisher for claiming the royal had hidden the fact that he was suing the U.K. government, and for alleging that he hadn't offered to pay for his and his family's own police protection for their Jubilee visit.
One year prior, Prince Harry's wife Meghan Markle won her own lawsuit against Associated Newspapers for breach of privacy, which included a front-page apology from the paper.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle stand together in their home for a video.
Prince Harry has remained extremely concerned about his safety and the safety of his family after the monarchy stripped him of his publicly funded security detail in 2020.
The Duke of Sussex recently revealed that he believes "it's still dangerous" to bring Markle back to the U.K. without proper security. He reportedly feels the same about their two children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.
As a result, and in addition to taking prominent U.K. tabloids and their publishers to court, Prince Harry has launched a legal attack regarding his family's lack of security protection overseas.
A source close to Prince Harry and his family, however, recently claimed that the Duchess of Sussex wants her husband to move on from his various legal battles.
"She wants him to be free of all of this, but she also knows that because of everything he’s been through and his love for [her and their children], he can’t," the insider and former employee told People. "She wants him to live in a world where he is not burdened by this."
