Prince Harry vs Rupert Murdoch: the story so far

When the Duke of Sussex steps into the witness box to take on Rupert Murdoch’s media empire, it will mark the culmination of an extraordinary legal battle.

It has been just over five years since Prince Harry lodged his claim against News Group Newspapers (NGN) for unlawful information-gathering. As the trial finally gets under way on Tuesday, Prince Harry is said to be “relishing” the chance to have his say in open court later next month.

It will mark a critical moment in his ongoing mission to “reform” the British media. Both his own reputation, and that of NGN, are on the line.

The Duke lodged his claim against NGN, the owner of the Sun and the now-defunct News of the World, in September 2019. It was a bold move. But it was also a sign of things to come. Here was a senior member of the Royal family who no longer wanted to play the game and turn a blind eye to perceived injustices.

At the time, the angry Prince was on the brink of turning his back on life as he knew it, throwing a virtual grenade into the heart of the monarchy and sending shock waves that reverberate throughout the Royal family to this day.

The trial is the latest lawsuit in Harry’s war with the British press, following a victory against Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) and preceding a clash with Associated Newspapers, publisher of the Daily Mail, pencilled in for next January.

Whichever way it goes, the ruling will be seismic. There is everything to play for.

Since filing his claim, the High Court case has taken many twists and turns. There have been wins and losses for both sides, sweeping statements about senior members of the Royal family and unsubstantiated allegations tossed around like confetti. We learnt that the Duke’s old email address was spikewales@hotmail.com and that Prince William had secretly accepted a “very large” settlement from the publisher in 2020.

Meanwhile, Prince Harry was accused of “deliberately” destroying potential evidence and ordered to explain how and why drafts of his memoir, Spare, and messages exchanged with his ghostwriter were deleted “well after” he began legal proceedings.

Public airing of dirty laundry

Presiding over it all has been Mr Justice Fancourt, a man whose occasionally weary demeanour and sharp dressings down sometimes suggested that he had heard enough of the whole sorry saga. On more than one occasion, he implored both parties to draw a line under proceedings, warning that the case resembled a campaign between “two obdurate but well-resourced armies”.

The judge – who heard the Duke’s claim against MGN in 2023 – will next week return to the spotlight as the case finally edges towards the finish line. The ten-week trial in the Rolls Building, the High Court’s modern, 11-storey annexe, will also see the Duke make a high-profile return to the witness box.

He will be quizzed over each of the 30 sample articles selected to form his case, including one about the day he found out he had been accepted to Eton in 1998, as well as the timings of his claim, what he knew and when.

There have long been rumours that the Duke might cave and settle but the goal is to hold this media behemoth to account – and that requires the very public airing of dirty laundry.

Unfortunately for the Royal Household, such revelations are rarely one-sided. We are expected to hear, for example, that the King “acted to discourage and stymie” his younger son from pursuing legal action, while the judge has authorised the release of emails sent between the late Queen’s most senior courtiers and newspaper executives.

The eclectic witness list includes the News of the World’s infamous “fake sheikh” Mazher Mahmood, former prime minister Gordon Brown and singer Charlotte Church’s mother, Maria.

The Duke’s legal crusade began following a chance encounter during a holiday in France. Harry and Meghan were staying with Sir Elton John in 2018 when the singer introduced the couple to their barrister, David Sherborne, “a lovely fellow who knew more about the phone-hacking scandal than anyone I’d ever met”.

When the disillusioned Duke complained that the palace had blocked him at every turn, Mr Sherborne spied an opportunity. “Why not hire your own lawyer?” he suggested. The NGN litigation began its slow plod through the courts the following year with a 37-page writ in which the Duke aired his grievances against The Sun and the News of the World covering a 15-year time period, from 1996-2011.

He alleged that he was a victim of phone hacking and blagging, adding that he had become paranoid and suspicious of friends after being targeted by journalists. He accused the newspapers of an overwhelming intrusion into his day-to-day life, which intensified following the death of his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales.

‘Secret agreements’

An early attempt by NGN to strike out the claim because it was made too late was largely unsuccessful, although the judge did throw out the hacking allegations.

In defending himself, Prince Harry made some startling revelations. It emerged he had pushed for a formal apology from NGN before his 2018 wedding as he could not bear the thought of the “main culprits” from the tabloid newspapers being among the congregation.

The late Queen was said to have given her permission to “push things forward” but in the end, it did not happen. This knock-back was blamed on a “secret agreement” drawn up between the Royal household and senior NGN executives which would see their claims settled at a later date.

This alleged deal, according to the Duke, was overseen by his grandmother and was part of a “specific long term strategy” to keep the media onside in order to smooth the way for Camilla to be accepted as Queen Consort.

The Duke also risked deepening his rift with Prince William by revealing that his brother had quietly accepted a payment – thought to be around £1 million – from NGN as part of this backroom deal. Royal sources swiftly denied the existence of such a pact and Mr Justice Fancourt appeared similarly bemused, questioning why the Duke had failed to raise such allegations earlier. In the event, the judge ruled that such a deal was “implausible”, rejecting his bid to use it as the reason for his late claim.

Undeterred, Prince Harry marched on. A few months later, he tried to expand the scope of his claim again, setting his sights firmly on the top brass. Mr Sherborne told the court last March that Rupert Murdoch knew the News of the World was involved in the cover-up of the true extent of hacking and illegal activity at his newspaper group.

The barrister said he wanted to amend the case to make specific allegations about the “destruction and concealment” of evidence carried out by certain individuals, listing some 150 private investigators, as well as journalists and executives. Among the names on his list was Piers Morgan, editor of the News of the World from 1994-1995 and one of the Duke’s biggest nemeses. Anthony Hudson KC, for NGN, forcefully opposed the amendments, warning that the case was being used as a “substitute for a public inquiry”.

“It’s already looking like the first draft of a book or screenplay, setting out every twist and turn,” he told Mr Justice Fancourt. The judge agreed, criticising the Duke’s lawyers for aiming at “trophy targets” with allegations that added nothing to the claim. “The trial is not an inquiry,” he warned.

‘Scattergun approach’

Elsewhere, the Duke sought to extend the parameters of his claim to cover a 22-year period stretching from 1994 to 2016 and incorporating messages said to have been accessed from the pager of his late mother. Mr Sherborne also claimed that private investigators working for the News of the World used scanning devices to listen in on phone calls, planted bugs or trackers on cars and intercepted voicemail messages left on landline telephones.

Again, Mr Hudson hit back, accusing the Duke of employing a “scattergun approach” to his claim with unspecified allegations dating back decades. The application to extend the timeframe was refused. The Duke won other skirmishes, not least when the frustrated judge rejected NGN’s attempt to delay the trial.

As the case finally comes to trial, it will be far from straightforward, involving as it does both “generic” and individual claims. The generic case is the one that holds all the risk for NGN and will draw on evidence gathered over many years as Mr Sherborne seeks to demonstrate which high profile executives knew what and when.

While NGN apologised for unlawful practices at the News of the World, closing down the newspaper in 2011, it has denied similar claims against The Sun, as well as the allegations of a corporate cover-up.

Of the individual claims, only two of an original 41 claimants – Prince Harry and Lord Watson, former deputy Labour leader – are still standing after the rest, including actor Hugh Grant, Spice Girl Melanie Brown and the Queen’s nephew, Ben Elliot, settled out of court.

Grant revealed in April that his hand had been forced because he could not risk being saddled with an estimated £10 million in legal costs. The development prompted Mr Sherborne to suggest that the Duke too, could be forced to settle. But the dogged Duke stood his ground, undeterred by the threat of a huge legal bill.

Just last month, he gave an interview in which he insisted that he wanted to achieve “closure” for the hundreds of others forced to settle owing to exorbitant legal costs. “The goal is accountability,” he said. “It’s really that simple.”