Prince Harry has emerged victorious in the latest legal battle against the publisher of The Sun newspaper. In the most recent ruling, a high court judge rejected NGN's request to postpone the trial scheduled for next January. The judge deemed it unsatisfactory to delay proceedings and instead opted to conduct a narrow preliminary trial to decide whether the issues had been presented too late. Prince Harry claims he was targeted by journalists and private investigators working for NGN, which also published the now-defunct News of the World.
This victory for Prince Harry comes just two days after actor Hugh Grant revealed he had settled his case against the newspaper publisher due to the risk of incurring a £10 million legal cost if the case went to trial. Harry's lawyer, David Sherborne, stated that the former working Prince faced similar issues, and the offers made by NGN made it impossible for them to move forward.
In a statement on their website, costs for both sides were outlined. Prince Harry's battle for police protection in the UK faced another setback when a judge rejected his request to appeal an earlier ruling upholding a government panel's decision to limit his access to publicly funded security after his status as a serving member of the royal family was relinquished.
The long-running legal battle began over four years ago when Harry appealed the committee's decision, arguing that he and his family still needed an armed security force due to the hostility directed against him and his wife, Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, on social media and the relentless scrutiny by the media.
High court judge Peter Lane ruled in February that the commission's decision, which provided security on demand based on need, was not unlawful, irrational, or unjustified. Prince Harry's disdain for British tabloids is well-documented, and he has repeatedly blamed the paparazzi for the role they played in his mother's death in 1997.
He has described changing the British media landscape as his life's work and stated that media interference was one of the reasons he and his wife withdrew from the royal family. In a statement read outside court by his lawyer, David Sherborne, after the remaining parts of the phone-hacking claim against MGN were settled, he said, "Everything we said was happening at Mirror Group was actually happening, and in fact, much worse, as the court ruled in her very damning judgment. As I said last December, our mission continues, and I believe in the positive change it will bring to all of us. That's why I started this and why I'll keep going until the end.
