As Prince Harry settles suit against Murdoch's News Group, here's a look at his recent legal battles
London — Britain's Prince Harry settled his lawsuit on Wednesday against the U.K. newspaper group owned by media mogul Rupert Murdoch, News Group Newspapers. But this isn't the only legal action Harry has been involved in against the tabloid press.
Below is a look at all the legal battles against the press that King Charles III's second son is or has recently taken part in:
News Group Newspapers
Prince Harry launched legal proceedings against News Group Newspapers (NGN), which publishes The Sun and used to publish the now-defunct News of the World, in September 2019, accusing its journalists of unlawfully hacking his voicemails. The case was settled out of court Wednesday, lawyers for both sides said, with NGN offering a profuse apology and "substantial damages" to Harry and his co-claimant, a former senior U.K. lawmaker.
NGN had argued the claims were brought too late and should be thrown out under the U.K.'s six-year statute of limitations, but Harry argued the delay was due to a secret agreement between the publisher and the royal family, which NGN has denied the existence of.
The Duke of Sussex alleged that staff of the NGN papers had hacked his phone and used investigators and deception to unlawfully gather information on him dating back two decades.
Mirror Group Newspapers
Prince Harry's lawsuit against Mirror Group Newspapers was settled in February 2024. Harry testified in court as part of that suit, claiming voicemail hacking and other illegal information gathering activities. It was the first time a senior member of Britain's royal family had offered court testimony since the 19th century.
Ahead of the settlement, a judge had found that only 15 of the 33 articles initially scrutinized in the case had been the product of phone hacking or other illegal information gathering. He awarded Harry a "modest" sum, equivalent to about $180,000, in damages, as the case had shown the Mirror Group "only played a small part in everything that the Duke suffered" and "was not responsible for all the unlawful activity that was directed at the Duke, and that a good deal of the oppressive behavior of the Press towards the Duke over the years was not unlawful at all."
"I consider that his phone was only hacked to a modest extent, and that this was probably carefully controlled by certain people at each newspaper," the judge said. "There was a tendency for the Duke in his evidence to assume that everything published was the product of voicemail interception because phone hacking was rife within Mirror Group at the time. But phone hacking was not the only journalistic tool at the time, and his claims in relation to the other 18 articles did not stand up to careful analysis."
The settlement that Harry received in February was in relation to claims on 115 more stories., CBS News partner network BBC News reported. The publishers agreed to cover his legal costs and pay the equivalent of an additional $370,000 in damages.
Associated Newspaper Group
Prince Harry is among several claimants — including pop star Elton John — who has accus the publisher of the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday tabloids, Associated Newspapers (ANL) of using unlawful methods to gather information about them, including tapping phone calls and impersonating people to obtain medical information.
Lawyers for Harry and the other claimants say the alleged acts took place between 1993 and 2011, but that the behavior continued as late as 2018.
ANL denies wrongdoing by its journalists and says the cases should be thrown out because of the amount time that has passed.
Separate ANL suit
Separately, Harry sued ANL for alleged libel over an article about his legal battle with the U.K. government regarding his security arrangements, but he dropped his claim early last year.
The article, published in the Daily Mail in February 2022, alleged Harry tried to keep his legal fight with the government a secret.
The prince also previously accepted an apology and damages from the same publisher over other articles in a separate libel lawsuit.
