Prince Harry’s legal team has discontinued his libel lawsuit against publishers of the Mail on Sunday over a 2022 article that accused Harry of trying to mislead the public.
Harry launched his lawsuit against Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) after a story published by the Mail on Sunday appeared to suggest he’d sought to hide his legal battle against the U.K. government concerning his police protection in Britain, which had been removed when he stepped down as a working royal two years earlier.
The story was published with the headline: “Exclusive: How Prince Harry tried to keep his legal fight with the government over police bodyguards a secret… then – just minutes after the story broke – his PR machine tried to put a positive spin on the dispute.”
Harry’s team denied the implication drawn in the article that he had sought to enforce confidentiality restrictions on his case against the Home Office and that his team had attempted to deflect attention from this by announcing that he had offered to pay for security when his bodyguards were taken away.
In July 2022, the prince got a boost when Judge Matthew Nicklin ruled that the paper’s article was defamatory in meaning, and in 2023, his legal team asked for a summary judgment without the need to go to trial.
Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images
However, a request to throw out part of the publisher’s legal defense was denied in December 2023, resulting in the royal being ordered to pay £48,447 ($61,376) of the paper’s legal costs, as the judge argued ANL’s lawyers had a “real prospect” or arguing their case.
On Friday, the MailOnline published an article claiming that the lawsuit was withdrawn hours before a deadline for his legal team to submit a list of relevant documents for the case. It also said the royal could be liable for the publisher’s £250,000 (roughly $316,718) legal costs.
Newsweek reached out to representatives of the Duke of Sussex and Associated Newspapers Limited via email for comment.
This is not Harry’s only ongoing lawsuit against ANL. In November, he was told that he could proceed to trial with allegations of historic unlawful information gathering against the publisher over stories written about his private life.
The prince has previously stated that he considers holding the media and journalists accountable for their actions and any illegal behavior to be his “life’s mission.”
This is a breaking story and will be updated with more information.
James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek‘s royal reporter, based in London. You can find him on X (formerly Twitter) at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek‘s The Royals Facebook page.
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