Prince Harry returns to London court for battle against tabloids

Prince Harry’s third legal battle against the British tabloids began Monday in London, the last scheduled courtroom confrontation between the exiled royal and the British press.

Harry, 41, attended Monday’s proceedings in person and is expected to testify Thursday, the first witness in the case that was joined by Elton John, Elizabeth Hurley and other prominent names.

The celebrities filed suit against Associated Newspapers Ltd., which owns the Daily Mail and its sister publications. They claim the papers engaged in a “clear, systematic and sustained use of unlawful information gathering” over several years.

It was “disturbing to feel that my every move, thought or feeling was being tracked and monitored just for the Mail to make money out of it,” Harry said in the statement.

Associated has denied all the allegations, and company lawyers argued Monday that Harry’s case was “in reality little more than guesswork — it involves jumping to conclusions based on insufficient evidence.”

Harry has expressed his disdain for the British press for several years, blaming them in part for the death of his mother, Princess Diana, and the fractures in the royal family.

In 2023, he won a case against the publishers of the Daily Mirror and its related papers, and in January 2025 he reached a settlement with The Sun’s publisher, which involved a “substantial” payment, along with a public apology and admission of wrongdoing by the paper.

With News Wire Services