Prince Harry Loses Lawsuit Against Publisher of Daily Mail. The Judge Dismissed All Claims
JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP via Getty Images
By 
Nadia Santiago
On July 7, 2026, the High Court in London ruled against Prince Harry and six defendants in their lawsuit against Associated Newspapers Limited, publishers of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday, and MailOnline. Mr Justice Matthew Nicklin dismissed all the allegations in a 436-page ruling, following a trial that lasted for about 11 weeks from January to March 2026.
The 7 plaintiffs allege illegal data collection between 1993 and 2011, including voicemail interception, wiretapping, wiretapping, and the use of deception to obtain confidential records. The judge ruled that they had failed to prove, on the balance of probabilities, that the information in the disputed articles had been obtained illegally.
This was the last of 3 battles Prince Harry had with the British media, and he lost.
The case, which was tried for about 11 weeks between January and March 2026, centered on allegations of illegal information gathering at Associated Newspapers from 1993 to 2011. The 7 plaintiffs accused the publisher of hacking voicemails, tapping landlines, making mistakes, leaking confidential records such as medical, banking, and telephone data, hiring private investigators for illegal activities, and corruptly paying off officials.
Mr Justice Matthew Nicklin ruled that the plaintiffs had failed to prove, on the balance of probabilities, that the information in the disputed articles had been obtained illegally. He believed that suspicion, even the understandable suspicion given by previous media scandals, was not the same as evidence, and he strongly accepted the credibility of journalistic testimony.
Alongside Harry, his fellow plaintiffs were Sir Elton John, David Furnish, Baroness Doreen Lawrence, Elizabeth Hurley, Sadie Frost, and Sir Simon Hughes.
Associated Newspapers called the decision a “great vindication” of its journalism and free magazine, and said it would seek to recover its legal fees.
Harry had more success in his other 2 cases. He won a major bankruptcy from Mirror Group Newspapers in December 2023, and settled with News Group Newspapers, publishers of The Sun, in January 2025. The Associated Newspapers decision closes the trio.
A hearing on substantive issues, including costs, was scheduled for the end of July 2026. No appeal has been announced as a decision.
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