In his legal dispute with News Group Newspapers, 38-year-old Prince Harry has received an update, but it probably wasn’t the information he was hoping for.
The Duke cannot sue the newspaper group for phone hacking, but the rest of his claim regarding the gathering of “unlawful information” can go forward, Mr. Justice Fancourt revealed on Thursday.
Photo: Adrian Dennis
The court has rejected Harry’s and his solicitors’ attempt to amend their case to reveal a “secret relationship” between the palace and the newspaper group.
Harry tried to rely on the purported agreement as part of his claim, but Mr. Justice Fancourt rejected this, saying: “I am unable to conclude that there is a sufficiently plausible evidential basis for the new case based on the secret agreement to justify the grant of permission to amend at a late stage of the proceedings.”
What is Prince Harry’s legal case about?
According to Prince Harry, reporters and private investigators for The Sun and the now-defunct News of the World used unethical techniques to gather information about him.
Harry discussed his ongoing resolve to hold the media accountable while promoting his explosive memoir “Spare” with ITV’s Tom Bradby. He remarked: “If they want to police society and hold us and the wealthy and powerful accountable, then who is policing them?”
What is Harry’s other case against publishers?
Here is what Harry testified during during his witness statement in court for his case against Mirror Group Newspapers.
The royal described his early life and later experiences in great detail. The breakdown of his relationship with his ex-girlfriend Chelsy Davy received a lot of attention. These kinds of articles gave him the impression that his relationship with Chelsy was destined to fail.
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It was extremely upsetting for me at the time that she ultimately decided that a life as a royal was not for her as he continued.
Harry said in a statement about growing up in the royal family and the spotlight, “As a child, every single one of these articles played an important and destructive role in my growing up.”
After talking about payments made to private investigators used to gather information on him, he also added: “I now realise that my acute paranoia of being constantly under surveillance was not misplaced after all.”
