In a significant development, Prince Harry's lawsuit against The Sun tabloid, alleging unlawful information gathering, has been given the green light to proceed to trial. However, the High Court judge ruled out the inclusion of phone hacking claims in the case.
The Duke of Sussex, 38, has initiated legal action against several UK newspapers, including News Group Newspapers (NGN), the publisher of The Sun and the now-defunct News of the World tabloids. NGN, a component of Rupert Murdoch's global publishing empire, had requested the High Court in London to dismiss the claims, arguing they were time-barred.
However, Judge Timothy Fancourt ruled that Harry's case could proceed to trial. He concluded that NGN had partially succeeded in its application related to time limits around alleged phone hacking but had failed in the remaining part.
The judge's decision comes after actor Hugh Grant won his court bid in May to bring his claim against NGN to trial. Several other high-profile claimants are also pursuing the newspaper group. The trial of the claims of the Duke and many other claimants is scheduled to start in January 2024.
Judge Fancourt determined that Prince Harry "has a realistically arguable case at trial" over allegations that the tabloid unlawfully sourced "confidential information from third parties" in part through private investigators. He noted that his judgement does not conclude whether they had been made in time, "only... that it is not sufficiently clear at this stage that it was issued too late".
However, regarding phone hacking accusations dating back to the 2000s, Fancourt sided with NGN that a six-year "limitation period" had expired before Harry filed his claim in 2019.
The judge also dismissed Harry's submissions that he had delayed initiating such a lawsuit due to a "secret agreement" between the royal family as an institution and the publisher. He stated that this claim "did not reach the necessary threshold of plausibility and cogency", adding "there was no witness or documentary evidence to support what the Duke claimed".
Prince Harry, the younger son of King Charles III, has had a tumultuous relationship with the media, especially since he and his American wife Meghan left the royal family in early 2020. They have both launched litigation against British newspaper publishers, including for privacy and copyright breaches, and libel.
Last month, the prince accused Mirror Group Newspapers of "industrial scale" phone hacking, becoming the first British royal in over a century to take to the witness stand. The judge in that lawsuit is yet to reach a decision.
