NEED TO KNOW
- Prince Harry concluded presenting his evidence in court in his case against Associated Newspapers Limited, which publishes the Daily Mail.
- The Duke of Sussex described the case and the need to revisit information as “recurring traumatic experience”, and a “repeat of the past”.
- Other famous names, including Sir Elton John and Elizabeth Hurley, also allege that the publisher used illegal methods to obtain stories.
- His stalker was there while he issued his evidence on both days.
Prince Harry’s stalker was allegedly in close contact with him while he was at court.
The Duke of Sussex accused the Daily Mail’s publisher, Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL), of unlawfully obtaining information for news stories.
This month, Harry, Elizabeth Hurley, Sir Elton John and his husband David Furnish, Sadie Frost, Sir Simon Hughes, and Baroness Doreen Lawrence alleged that the Daily Mail has used methods such as phone hacking and “blagging” to obtain stories.
The publisher, which also runs Mail on Sunday, has denied these claims.
Throughout the case, he appeared at the High Court on January 19 and 21, with The Telegraph reporting that Harry’s alleged female stalker sat feet away from him on two separate occasions.
When he arrived and left the court, the Duke of Sussex was photographed flanked by his security team.
A source told the publication that his team saw his stalker, but could not do anything about the situation.
“There is nothing they could do; they are not the police,” the insider said. “It’s a public building, and she has a right to be there.”
“He is obviously always worried about his security situation; it’s not ideal,” they said about the Prince.
Harry previously had a close encounter with his stalker when he visited London in September, at the WellChild Awards, and at the Centre for Blast Injury Studies.
At the time, a spokesperson for him told PEOPLE that they “do not comment on security issues”.
The Telegraph also previously reported that the woman once followed Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, to Nigeria.
Harry’s battle in court
During his second day at court on January 21, Harry spent around two-and-a-half hours answering questions from ANL’s barrister.
Then, his barrister, David Sherborne, asked him how he felt about the proceedings.
“It’s fundamentally wrong to put us through this again when all we wanted was an apology and accountability. It’s a horrible experience,” the Prince said.
Outlets reported that he sounded emotional and “appeared to be on the verge of tears”.
“They continue to come after me, they have made my wife’s life an absolute misery, my Lord,” he added.
He said rehashing the information in the case felt like a “recurring traumatic experience”, and a “repeat of the past”.
“I have never believed that my life is open season to be commercialised by these people,” he lamented.
He refuted the claim that he didn’t have “any rights to any privacy” as “disgusting”, and as a royal, said he always had an “uneasy relationship with the press”.
“However, as a member of the institution, the policy was to ‘never complain, never explain’,” he continued.
He was initially expected to provide evidence on January 22, but opening submissions for the ANL and claimants ended earlier than usual.
A source close to the Prince alleged that finishing it earlier than expected was intentional.
“ANL, publishers of the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday and MailOnline… have had months to inform the court that their opening argument would last less than two hours, instead, they have had to resort to game playing and dirty tricks – consistent with the way they have treated not just the Duke but all of the victims in this case,” they alleged.
“They think that by pulling the schedule forward 24 hours they are giving Prince Harry less time to prepare – he’s been preparing for this moment for the last three years. Safe to say, he’s ready.”
The trial was initially expected to last for nine weeks.
After the proceedings, a spokesperson for the Duke of Sussex criticised the cross-examination.
“Today’s cross-examination was revealing in its weakness: assertive in tone, but collapsing immediately under scrutiny from Prince Harry,” the spokesperson said.
“Associated couldn’t wait to get him off the stand, questioning him for just two hours and avoiding 10 of his 14 articles entirely.”
On January 19, Harry issued a written statement via his lawyer, saying it was “disturbing to feel that my every move, thought or feeling was being tracked and monitored just for the Mail to make money out of it”.
It’s the Prince’s third major court battle against the British newspapers.
In January 2025, he won a five-year legal battle against The Sun, News Group Newspapers (NGN), where he accused them of unlawful information gathering, phone hacking, surveillance, and the misuse of private information.
He also won a court judgement against the Daily Mirror in 2023.
Attorney Sherborne alleged that the unlawful news gathering about the Prince was in relation to 14 articles published between 2011 and 2013.
He also read Harry’s statement, citing that the articles and the released information caused “distrust and suspicion”, adding that the “intrusion” was “terrifying” for his loved ones.
The Daily Mail’s Royal Editor Rebecca English was accused of “obtaining the exact plane seats, flight times and travel plans” of his then-girlfriend Chelsy Davy in 2007, alleging that it was obtained through private investigator Mike Behr.
He was accused of suggesting that he could “plant someone next to her” on the flight.
White and English “strongly” deny it, and said the information was sourced “entirely legitimately”, adding that the allegations and evidence were “unsupported by the evidence before the court”.
During his second court appearance, Harry explained that his relationship with his Chelsy was mainly long-distance, with them “often” living in different countries.
“We, naturally, spoke about all types of personal matters, including all aspects of our relationship, and this was often through calls, texts and voicemails left on her mobile and landline phone in South Africa,” he said in a statement.
“As she was my girlfriend, I trusted Chelsy with the most private of information and vice versa.”
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