In London, a judge at the High Court ruled last week that a newspaper article about Prince Harry’s legal battle with the British government around his security arrangements was indeed defamatory. This, NBC News reports, helps the royal family member, 37, to take his libel claim to trial.
Harry is suing Associated Newspapers, publisher of Mail on Sunday, for libel over a February 2022 article. The piece alleged that Harry attempted to hide secret details regarding his legal fights so that she could reinstate his police protection. The article also suggested that Harry’s aides attempted to put a positive spin on this.
Prince Harry won his libel case against the Mail, the Mail’s claims were ‘defamatory’ https://t.co/TVX0E06pb4 pic.twitter.com/QYmDu6e8rv
— celebitchy (@celebitchy) July 8, 2022
Associated Newspapers denied that the article was libelous and in June, a preliminary hearing was held. This was to determine what a reader would find was the “natural and ordinary” meaning of the story. Ultimately, the judge, Matthew Nicklin ruled, “I am satisfied that these meanings are defamatory at common law.”
Nicklin added that the article implied that Harry was seeking “far-reaching and unjustifiably wide” confidentiality restrictions and that, NBC News adds, was responsible for statements put out on his behalf, “rather than his public relations team as the paper had argued.” According to Nicklin, any reader would gather from the piece that Harry “was responsible for attempting to mislead and confuse the public as to the true position.”
Prince Harry ‘wins’ first phase of libel claim in High Courthttps://t.co/S2Rr4ZlFvK pic.twitter.com/t8oknmTpOC
— Goss.ie (@goss_ie) July 8, 2022
Nicklin’s decision is important since this creates the possibility for Harry to take his case further. This also means that the Mail can also put forward a defense.“This is very much the first phase in a libel claim,” Nicklin said. “It will be a matter for determination later in the proceedings whether the claim succeeds or fails, and if so on what basis.”
Just one day before this ruling, Harry’s lawyers were at the High Court. They asked for permission for a judicial review of the government decision on providing the prince with police protection. This libel case is the latest major event in the ongoing legal drama between the newspaper group and Harry and his wife Meghan Markle, 40.
“It was destroying my mental health.” Prince Harry opened up about “toxic” media coverage in an interview with James Corden: https://t.co/qGABOlHZMb pic.twitter.com/4Wvgkss6cn
— Decider (@decider) February 26, 2021
In December 2021, Meghan won a claim against the Mail on Sunday after it printed excerpts of her 2018 handwritten letter to her estranged father. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex now live in California with their children: son Archie Harrison, 3, and daughter Lilibet Diana, 1.
Harry revealed in February 2021 that their decision to move to the sunny state was in part because the British press was deeply impacting his mental health and made him worry for his family’s safety. In an interview with The Late Late Show host James Corden, Harry explained that the situation was “destroying my mental health” and he “did what any husband [or] father would do.”
