Prince Harry to appeal Daily Mail lawsuit after being ordered to pay £9 million

Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, was seen leaving the Royal Courts of Justice during the trial against ANL. Prince Harry and several other high-profile figures have lodged an appeal with the Court of Appeal after a judge ruled that Daily Mail journalists had not hacked their phones. The Duke of Sussex, alongside Baroness Doreen Lawrence and Sir Elton John, had brought legal action against Associated Newspapers Limited over claims of unlawful information-gathering.

However, a judge dismissed all of their allegations and ordered the group to pay the newspaper £9,544,355 as an interim payment while the full costs are still being assessed. Prince Harry later referred to the case as a “whitewash.” A spokesperson for Harry, Lady Lawrence, Sir Elton, his husband David Furnish, and actresses Liz Hurley and Sadie Frost said: “We confirm that the claimants have today filed applications with the Court of Appeal for permission to appeal the judgments of Mr Justice Nicklin in respect of his dismissal of their claims and the indemnity costs order. “The claimants respectfully disagree with those unprecedented decisions, which they consider to be legally and factually flawed.” Court staff also confirmed on Friday that an application to appeal the rulings had been filed with the Court of Appeal.

At trial, barristers for the group alleged that private investigators, freelance journalists and ANL staff had engaged in practices including voicemail interception, landline tapping, and obtaining information by deception, also known as “blagging.” Lawyers for the publisher, however, said that journalists from the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday had given a “compelling account of a pattern of legitimate sourcing of articles.” They said this included information from friends and “leaky” social circles, press officers and spokespeople, as well as previous reporting, freelance journalists, and material from other newspapers and news agencies.