Prince Harry Revives His Battle Against The Press With New Lawsuit

It would appear that libel lawsuits against newspapers are having a moment, but Prince Harry is probably hoping his new suit against the press will go better than Sarah Palin's lawsuit against The New York Times, where both judge and jury totally rejected the former Alaska governor's claims. There are some obvious differences between the two situations, of course. For one, Palin was going up against the paper of record. Prince Harry is battling tabloids. For another, Harry's lawsuit will be fought in the U.K., not the United States. And finally, Harry — and Meghan Markle for that matter — have won similar lawsuits against these papers in the past.

Harry and Meghan both have a long history of going head to head — and winning — with the British press, starting from at least the time that their relationship first became public. In December 2021, Meghan won her long-running privacy and copyright infringement lawsuit against The Mail on Sunday and MailOnline, which came with a front page apology, according to Marie Claire. Now, Harry has started new legal action against those very publications' parent company, Associated Newspapers, which also publishes the Daily Mail. 

Omid Scobie, the royals editor at Harper's Bazaar, tweeted on February 23 the breaking news that Prince Harry had filed a new complaint against Associated Newspapers, via a spokesperson. In the short thread, Scobie told followers to expect more details about the libel action in the coming weeks, and also added a bit of context. "The news follows Mail on Sunday recently breaking several stories about Harry's ongoing efforts to fund police protection while in the UK," Scobie tweeted. "In January 2021 the Duke settled a defamation suit against the same paper over false stories about his relationship with the armed forces."

Team Sussex has not yet revealed any other details about this particular lawsuit, but we'd imagine the allegations are along the same lines as the others. Currently, Prince Harry is also pursuing claims against The Sun and The Mirror over phone hacking allegations, according to The Telegraph, as well as litigation against the Home Office over their decision not to allow him to pay for his own police protection while in the U.K. The Telegraph noted that a lot of this litigation came after a security disturbance in London in 2021, in which paparazzi chased Harry's car. The parallels to the death of his mother, Princess Diana, are obvious. 

We don't know if Harry will win this case, but if history is any indication, he stands a good chance.